THE 



CHARACTERISTICS AND LAWS 



FIGUEATIYE LANGUAGE 



DAYID N.LORD 



3@*0t3TU& for ust in 33til* Class**, %z^oo\g, aitlr Collies. 



" Nnm cum sit ornatus orationis ranus et multip.ex, convesiatque alius alii, nisi fuerit accommo- 
datus rebus atque personis, non raodo non illustrabit earn, sed etiam destruet, et vim rernm in 
coutrarium vertet." — Quintilianus. 




NEW YORK: 
FRANKLIN KNIGHT, 

138 NASSAU STREET. 



1854. 






7 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, 

By DAVID N. LORD, 

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 

District of New York. 



JR. CRAIGHEAD, Printer and Stereotype^ 
53 Vcsty Street, JV. Y. 



-?° 



CONTENTS 



</? 



PAGE 

Preface ........... v 

Chapter I. Enumeration and Definition of the Figures 7 

" II. The Comparison 15 

" III. " Metaphor .31 

" IV. " Metonymy\ 50 

V, " SynecdochbI 55 

VI. " Hyperbole* 59 

" VIL " Hypocatastasis 61 

" VIII. " Apostrophe 93 

" IX. " Personification J/. .... 103 

" X. " Allegory . ..- , . . .115 

" XL " Imaginary Figure of the Spiritualists 12*7 

" XII. " Effect of Figures on Style . . .138 

XIIL " Application of the Laws of Figures to 

Interpretation .... 156 

" XIV. " Results of the Laws of Figures in the 

Interpretation of the Scriptures . 174 
" XV. " Same Subject continued . . .184 

" XVI. " Same Subject continued . . . 229 

" XVII. Musical Feet, and the Modulation of Verse 269 
" XVIII. The Importance of a Knowledge of the 

Principles of Versification . 28T 



t 



PKEFACE 



The views presented in the ensuing work — of the nature of 
the several figures, the office they fill, and the laws by which they 
are governed — are quite unlike those of Quintilian, Kaimes, Lowth, 
Blair, and other rhetoricians, and of the commentators on the poets, 
and the expositors of the sacred writings. Those writers give 
no exact analysis of them ; they enter into no consideration of the 
principles on which they are used ; they present no hint of the 
rules by which they are to be interpreted ; and no intimations are 
found on the pages even of the most recent works on language 
and interpretation, of the necessity of an accurate understanding 
of their nature, in order to the just exposition of the sacred word, 
and the rejection and refutation of the false constructions to 
which large portions of it are now subjected. 

The several figures are here minutely analysed ; the particulars 
in which they differ from each other pointed out; the principles 
stated on which they are employed ; the rules given by which 
their meaning is determined ; and their characteristics and laws 
verified by a large variety of examples from the sacred writings 
and the poets. 

The subject will be found, by those who thoroughly study it, 



VI PEEFACE. 

to be one of the finest in the whole circle of knowledge, both for 
the development and discipline of the intellect, and the evolution 
and refinement of the taste. The application of the characteristics 
and laws to the identification and interpretation of the figures of 
the sacred word, though after practice involving little difficulty, 
requires close and discriminative attention ; and the perception of 
the analogies on which they are founded, and the delicate graces 
with which they are fraught, is eminently adapted to unfold and 
quicken the sensibility to what is beautiful and grand, and imbue 
the taste with delicacy and elegance. 

The seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth chapter 
on musical feet and the modulation of verse, should be studied 
immediately after the introduction, that their principles may be 
applied by the learner to the passages from the poets that occur in 
the chapters on the figures. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE NATURE OF FIGURES THEIR TWO CLASSES THEIR 

SEVERAL KINDS. 

A Figure of Speech is a mode of expression in 
which a word or thing is used in an artificial 
manner, in order to a more forcible presentation of 
thought, or the illustration and embellishment of 
that to which it is applied. Thus in the sentence — ■ 
the clouds fly — there is a figure in the use of the 
verb, which properly denotes the movement of a 
bird or insect by its wings, but is applied by a 
metaphor to the clouds borne forward by the wind, 
to express more clearly and strongly the ease and 
rapidity of their motion, and makes the phrase 
equivalent to a comparison of their movement to 
that of a bird ; as in the simile — the clouds move 
like a bird ; or they are borne on as though they 
moved by wings. 

In this simile, however, instead of a word, it is the 
act itself of a bird, or a movement by wings, that is 
used in the figure. In like manner, it is an act that 



TWO CLASSES OF FIGURES. 



is used in the following comparisons ; the clouds, 
gathered in masses, look like banks of snow ; they 
move along the air like ships sailing before the 
wind ; and so of the simile universally, the hypoca- 
tastasis, and the allegory. This distinction between 
figures is so absolute, that the same word may be 
used both in a metaphor, which is of the first class, 
and in a simile, which is of the other ; as in the ex- 
pressions — the ship flew over the water; the ship 
moved along the water, as though it had wings and 
flew. In the first, the figure is in the use of the 
verb ; in the other, in the use of the act expressed 
by it. 

Figures thus consist of two great classes — those 
that lie in an artificial use of words for the pur- 
pose of a more convenient or emphatic expression, 
and those that lie in an artificial use of things for that 
purpose, or for illustration and ornament. To the 
former belong the metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, 
hyperbole, personification, and the apostrophe ; to 
the latter the comparison, the hypocatastasis, and 
the allegory. 

Verbal figures consist in the application of words 
to things, of which they are not the natural or 
ordinary names ; as when the motion of the clouds 
is called flying, and the rebounding of rain from the 
surface on which it falls, dancing. In the other class, 



THE KINDS OF FIOUEES. 9 

in which things are employed, the words are used 
in their ordinary manner, and the objects which 
they denote are employed for illustration and em- 
bellishment ; as when the flying of a hawk round in 
a circle without moving its wings, is said to be like 
the motion of a ship borne round in the wide sweep 
of a rapid whirlpool, without changing its canvas. 

An expression or passage is figurative that con- 
tains a figure of either of these classes. A phrase or 
sentence cannot be figurative without a figure. To 
prove that an expression or sentence is figurative, it 
must be shown that there is a figure in it, and the 
class determined to which it belongs. 

There are nine kinds of figures — the Comparison, 
the Metaphor, the Metonymy, the Synecdoche, the 
Hyperbole, the Hypocatastasis, the Apostrophe, the 
Prosopopoeia or Personification, and the Allegory or 
Parable. 

A Comparison is an affirmation of the likeness of 
one thing to another ; as when it is said of man — His 
days are as grass; as a flower of the field so he 
flourisheth, for the wind passeth over it and it 
is gone. 

A Metaphor is an affirmation, or representation 
by words, that an agent, object, quality, or act, is 
that which it merely resembles; as when God is 
1* 



10 THE KINDS OF FIGURES. 

said to be a high tower or fortress to them that trust 
in him for protection, to indicate the safety in which 
he preserves them. 

A Metonymy is a change of name by the deno- 
mination of a thing by a noun that is not its proper 
nor its metaphorical denominative, but is the proper 
name of something with which, as a scene or place, 
it is intimately connected ; as when a person is said 
to have a long head, to signify that he has a far- 
seeing and comprehensive mind. 

The Synecdoche is the use of a term that properly 
denotes only a part of a thing, or one of a kind, in 
place of one that denotes the whole, or of one that 
denotes the whole instead of one that signifies only 
a part ; as a species for a genus, such as a day for 
time, man for mankind. 

The Hyperbole is an exhibition of things as 
greater or less in dimensions, more or less in num- 
ber, or better or worse in kind, than they truly are ; 
as when it is said of a large man, he is a giant \ or of 
a splendid mansion, it is a palace. 

The Hypocatastasis is a substitution, without a 
formal notice, of an act of one kind, with its object 



THE KINDS OF FIGCKES. 11 

or conditions, for another, in order by a resem- 
blance to exemplify that for which the substitute is 
used ; as when a person attempting to accomplish 
something that either from its nature, or his power 
or condition, is impossible or of extreme difficulty 
to him, is said to undertake to force his bark against 
wind and tide — a work of one kind which is known 
to be hopeless, being employed to exemplify the 
impracticableness of the other. 

The name Hypocatastasis, in Greek "iifxcvraTTZrifr 
denoting substitution, is drawn, like the names of all 
the other figures, from that language, and is, like 
them, descriptive of the figure itself, which consists 
in the use of one thing as the substitute for another 
for the purpose of illustration. 

The Apostrophe is a direct address, in a speech, 
argument, narrative, or prediction, to a person or 
object that is the subject of discourse, or to one who 
hears it, and is to form a judgment respecting it ; 
as when one, in pronouncing a funeral eulogy, 
directly addresses the departed, as though he were 
listening to what is uttered, and able to respond to 
and confirm it. 

The Prosopopoeia, or Personification, is an ascrip- 
tion of intelligence to an inanimate object, by 



12 THEIR DIFFERENCE FROM SYMBOLS. 

addressing it as though it had the organs of hearing 
or sight, or ascribing to it the passions or actions of 
men ; as when the prophet calls to the heavens to 
hear, and to the earth to attend to his word. 

The Allegory, or Parable, is the use of intelligences 
acting in one sphere or relation, to exemplify and 
illustrate their own or the agency of others in 
another; or the use of unintelligent objects in a 
natural or supposititious relation, to exemplify the 
conduct of men. They are sometimes employed 
together ; as in the lxxxth Psalm, a vine is used as 
the representative of the Israelites ; and God's 
planting and rearing it is employed -to exemplify his 
administration over them. There is always an 
intimation at the beginning or close of the Allegory 
or Parable, who or what it is, that it is employed to 
exemplify. 

Figures differ essentially from symbols; figures 
being used only for illustration and ornament, and 
the agents or objects to which they are applied 
being always the agents or subjects of the acts or 
qualities which they ascribe to them ; while sym- 
bols, on the other hand, instead of mere names or 
predicates of agents or objects, are themselves 
agents, objects, qualities, acts, conditions, or effects, 



THE KESTDS OF FIGURES. 13 

that are used as representatives of agents, objects, 
qualities, acts, conditions, or effects, generally of a 
different but resembling class. Thus in Daniel's 
vision, wild beasts are employed as prophetic repre- 
sentatives of cruel, bloody, and destroying men : 
powerful and ferocious creatures in the animal 
world, that preyed on inferior beasts, being put in 
the place of men in the political world of a corres- 
ponding character towards mankind ; and destructive 
acts of the one employed to represent the resem- 
bling acts of the other. In like manner, in the 
Apocalypse, candlesticks, or lamp stands, whose 
office it is to support lights, are used to represent 
churches which support teachers that spread the 
knowledge of the Gospel ; and stars whose office it 
is to shed light on the world when wrapped in the 
darkness of night, are employed as representatives 
of teachers of the church, whose work it is to spread 
the light of the Gospel in the world of men, which 
is involved in moral darkness. 

Questions which the learner should answer in respect to the 
nature of figures, their classes, and kinds. 

"What is a figure of speech? How many classes of figures are 
there ! What are they ? Give an example of one that lies in the 
use of a word. Give an example of one that lies in the use of a 
thing. For what purpose are they used ; or what service do they 
render in the treatment of subjects I What figures "belong to the 



14: THEIR DIFFERENCE FROM SYMBOLS. 

first class ? "What belong to the second ? "What is the peculiarity 
of a verbal figure ? What is the peculiarity of the other class ? In 
what sense are the words employed in figures in which things are 
the instrument of illustration? "What constitutes an expression 
figurative ? How can it be known that a sentence is tropical ? 
How many kinds of figures are there ? Name them. Define the 
comparison, metaphor, metonymy, and others. "What is a symbol ? 
How do symbols differ from figures? Give an example of a 
symbol, and the mode in which it is used. 



THE COMPARISON. 15 



CHAPTER H. 



THE COMPARISON. 



A Simile, or Comparison, is an affirmation of the 
likeness of one thing to another, and is expressed by 
as, like, so, or some other term of resemblance. Thus 
the personage throned on the cloud (Rev. xiv. 14) is 
said to have been like a son of man ; that is, of a 
human form. In the description of Christ (Rev. i. 
14) it is said, " His eyes were qg a flame of fire, and 
his voice as the sound of many waters ;" and the 
visibleness and conspicuity of his coming is com- 
pared to a shaft of lightning that flashes across the 
firmament. " As the lightning cometh out of the 
east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall the 
coming of the Son of man be." (Matt. xxiv. 27.) 
The change from condemnation to forgiveness con- 
sequent on repentance, is compared to a change from 
the deepest red to the purest white. " Though your 
sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow ; 



16 THE COMPARISON. 

though they be red as crimson they shall be as 
wool." (Isaiah i. 18.) It is predicted of Zion, when 
redeemed, that God " will extend peace to her like 
a river," ever gliding and giving fruitfulness and 
beauty to the scene through which it passes ; and 
the glory of the Gentiles, like an overflowing 
" stream " that is Ml to the banks, moving forward 
with a resistless current, and bearing on its bosom a 
rich commerce. (Isaiah lxvi. 12.) 

Comparisons are of two classes. Those of the first 
simply affirm that one thing is like another. Thus 
it is said of tne man of God~(3udges xiii. 6), " His 
countenance was like an angel of God." It is said 
of man, " He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut 
down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth 
not." (Job xiv. 2.) The Psalmist said, " I have seen 
the wicked in great power, and spreading himself 
like a green bay tree " (Ps. xxxvii. 35); and he 
predicts that " the righteous shall flourish like the 
palm tree ; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." 
(Ps. xcii. 12.) 

The other class, which is far the most effective, 
not only affirms the fact of a- r ftsemblance 1 but indi- 
cates its nature. Thus: "The man that walketh not 
in the counsel of the ungodly shall be like a tree 
planted by the rivers of toater, that bringeth forth 
his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither. 



THE COMPARISON. 17 

And whatsoever Tie doeth shall prosper. But the 
ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the 
wind driveth away" (Ps. i. 1-4.) The relation 
in which each resembles that to which it is com- 
pared is ffius- specifie d. The righteous not only 
resembles a tree, but a tree secured by its position 
from blight, and yielding fruit in its season. The 
ungodly is not merely like chaff, but like chaff 
driven away by the wind. 

In the following the effect of God's word is com- 
pared to that of rain or snow on the earth : 

" For as the rain cometh down, 
And the snow from heaven, 
And returns not thither 
But waters the earth, 

And makes it germinate and put forth its increase, 
That it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, 
So shall be the word that goeth out of my mouth ; 
It shall not return unto me fruitless ; 
It shall effect what I have willed, 
And make the purpose succeed for which I sent it." 

Isaiah lv. 10, 11 

The most elegant and impressive of the similes of 
the poets are of this class. Thus Homer compares a 
young warrior killed by the spear of Ajax, and 



18 THE COMPARISON. 

divested of his armor, to a flourishing poplar felled 
by the axe, and left to wither in the summer air : 

" But his days were few, 
Too few to recompense the care that reared ^^ 
His comely growth ; for Ajax, mighty chief, 
Received him on his pointed spear ; and pierced 
Through breast and shoulder, in the dust he fell. 
So nourished long in some well-watered spot, 
Crowned with green boughs, the smooth-skinned poplar 

falls, 
Doomed by the builder to supply with wheels 
Some splendid chariot. On the bank it lies, 
A lifeless trunk, to parch in summer airs. 
Such Ajax left, divested of his arms, 
Young Simoisius." 

Iliad iv. 511-528. 

Young employs the same simile to illustrate the 
sudden death of the beautiful and conspicuous in 
the glow of activity and enjoyment. 

" Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow ; 
A blow which, while it executes, alarms, 
And startles thousands with a single fall. 
As when some stately growth of oak or pine, 
"Which nods aloft, and proudly spreads her shade, 
The sun's defiance and the flocks' defence, 



THE COMPARISON. 19 

By the strong strokes of laboring hinds subdued, 
Loud groans her last, and rushing from her height 
In cumbrous ruin, thunders to the ground : 
The conscious forest trembles at the shock, 
And hill, and stream, and distant dale resound." 

Night v. 

Milton compares Satan divested of his glory, to 
the sun shrouded in lurid clouds, or under eclipse : 

" He above the rest, 
In shape and gesture proudly eminent, 
Stood like a tower : his form not vet had lost 
All her original brightness, nor appeared 
Less than archangel ruined, and the excess 
Of glory obscured. ^§ when the sun new risen 
Looks through the horizontal misty air, 
Shorn of his b eams ; or from behind the moon 
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds 
On half the nations, and with fear of change 
Perplexes monarchs. Darkened so, yet shone 
Above them all the archangel." 

Paradise Lost, b. i. 

• 

His shield he compares to the moon seen through 
a telescope : 



20 THE COMPAEISON. 

" He scarce had ceased, when the superior fiend 
"Was moving toward the shore ; his ponderous shield, 
Etherial temper, massy, large, and round, 
Behind him cast ; the broad circumference 
Hung on his shoulder like the moon, whose orb 
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views 
At evening from the top of Fesole, 
Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, 
Rivers, or mountains, on her spotty globe." 

Pabadise Lost, b. L 

Homer compares the agitation of the Greeks at 
Agamemnon's proposal to abandon the siege of 
Troy, to the movement of the sea, sayl of fields of 
grain nnder a powerful wind : 

" Commotion shook 
The whole assembly, such as heaves the flood 
Of the Icarian deep, when south and east 
Burst forth together from the clouds of Jove ; 
And as the rapid west descending shakes 
Corn at full growth, and bends the loaded ears. 
So was the council shaken." 

Iliad h\ L 162-168. 

6k}ott compares the quickness with which the 
tears of childhood dry, to that of the dew of flowers : 



THE COMPARISON. 21 

" The tear down childhood's cheek that flows 
Is like the dewdrop on the rose : 
When first the summer breeze comes by, 
And shakes the bush, the flower is dry." 

The comparison has two characteristics. First, 
it is expressed b y as. like, so.o r some other term of 
resemblance. Secondly, the names of the things 
compared are used in their literal sensa. Thus in 
the similes, The manna was like coriander seed, 
white ; the staff of his spear was like a weaver's 
beam; the wicked are like the troubled sea — the 
terms manna, staff of his spear, and the wicked, on 
the one hand, are used in their literal sense. It is 
manna, spear-staff, and the wicked, not any- 
thing else, that are said to be like the objects with 
which they are compared ; and, on the other, it is 
coriander seed, a weaver's beam, and a troubled 
sea, and not anything else, which they are severally 
declared to resemble ; and so of all other com- 
parisons. If the names were not used literally, there 
would be no means of determining what the things 
are that are compared. This characteristic is of 
great moment ; as it results from it, that when com- 
parisons are employed in predictions and promises, 
the things which are promised or foreshown in the 
comparison, are the identical things that are named, 
not others of an analogous kind ; and are literally to 



22 THE COMPARISON. 

come to pass in the manner in which the prediction 
or promise specifies. Tims in the announcement 
(Matt. xxiv. 27), " For as the lightning cometh out 
of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall 
the coming of the Son of Man be;" his visible 
coming, which is compared to the shining of a 
lightning flash, is his literal, personal coming, not 
some other event ; and that with which it is com- 
pared is a shaft of lightning that flashes athwart the 
firmament from east to west, not an event or 
appearance of another kind. In the promise, also, 
"As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, 
neither the sand of the sea measured, so will I 
multiply the seed of David, my servant, and the 
Levites that minister unto me" (Jeremiah xxxiii. 
22), it is the actual offspring of David, and the 
literal Levites, and not anything else, that are to be 
multiplied so as to exceed the power of enumera- 
tion as much as the host of heaven exceeds it, and as 
much as the sand of the sea transcends our power 
of measuring it. 

As things of all kinds present resemblances to 
others, comparisons are framed betwixt objects of 
all classes. Thus agents are compared to agents, 
acts to acts, qualities to qualities, modes to modes, 
conditions to conditions, effects to effects ; and these 
with one another in innumerable relations. Christ, 



THE COMPARISON. 23 

in his glorified humanity, is compared to a son of 
man (Rev. i. 14-15) ; his hairs to snow in whiteness; 
his feet to glowing brass in brilliancy ; and his voice 
to the sound of a trumpet. Man is compared to the 
beasts that perish (Ps. xlix. 20) ; his tongue to a 
sharp razor (Ps. lii. 2) ; his counsels to deep water 
(Prov. xx. 5) ; his agitation, under fear, to the sway- 
ing of a forest under a powerful wind (Isa. vii. 2) ; 
and his frailty to that of a flower (Ps. ciii. 15). The 
agency of the Spirit on man is resembled to that of 
the wind on the trees, which is known only by its 
effects (John iii. 8). The righteousness of God is 
likened to the great mountains, vast, conspicuous, 
and immovable (Ps. xxxvi. 6) ; and the elevation 
of his thoughts above ours, to the height of the 
heavens above the earth (Isaiah lv. 9). And thus 
his various attributes, acts, and works ; the faculties 
and affections, the thoughts and aims, the achieve- 
ments and misfortunes of men ; and the numberless 
objects and processes of the natural world, are illus- 
trated by similitudes that are presented by other 
agents, objects, or acts. 

The comparisons employed by the poets and 
orators are very numerous ; and those of the second 
class especially, in which the resemblances are 
specified, contribute more than any other figures to 
the embellishment of their writings. 

Akenside represents all mtelligent beings as 
drawn to God by a power analogous to that of 



24: THE COMPABISON. 

gravity in the material world ; which, in respect to 
men, is rather what should be than what is : 

" As flame ascends, 
As bodies to their proper centre move, 
As the proud ocean to the attracting moon 
Obedient swells, and every headlong stream 
Devolves its winding waters to the main, 
So all things which have life aspire to God, 
The sun of being, boundless, unimpaired, 
Centre of souls." 

Pleasures of Imagination, b. ii. 

Goldsmith compares the minister of his Deserted 
Tillage to a cliff towering above the clouds, and 
basking in perpetual sunshine : 

" The service past, around the pious man, 
With steady zeal, each honest rustic ran ; 
E'en children followed, with endearing wile, 
And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile. 
His ready smile a parent's warmth expressed, 
Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distrest ; 
To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given, 
But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven. 
As some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form, 
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm ; 
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 



THE COMPARISON. 25 

" The quality of mercy is not strained. 
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
Upon the place beneath ; it is twice blest, 
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes." 

Shakspeare. 

In some similes, like one already quoted, several 
objects are presented as resembling that which is 
the subject of comparison. 

" As from the wing no scar the sky retains, 
The parted wave no furrow from the keel, 
So dies in human hearts the thought of death." 

Young. 

" Like a boat on the wave 

When a storm 's in the sky ; 
Like the rose o'er a grave 

When the winter is nigh ; 
Like a star when it streams 

Through the blue heavens bright ; 
Like the fabric of dreams 

'Mid the slumbers of night ; 
Like the lamp that is lit 

In the mist o'er the moor, 
Or the bubbles that flit 
By the rude, rocky shore, 
Is the vision of life in this tempest-tost clime ; 
A shadow fast fleeting — a moment of time." 
2 



26 THE COMPARISON. 

" Like foam on the crest of the billow, 

Which sparkles and sinks from the sight ; 
Like leaf of the wind-shaken willow, 

Though transiently, beauteously bright ; 
Like dew-drops, exhaled as they glisten ; 

Like perfume, which dies soon as shed ; 
Like melody, hushed while we listen, 
Is memory's dream of the dead." 

Barton. 

Many of the comparisons of natural objects are 
very beautiful : 

" The sea is like a silvery lake, 

And o'er its calm the vessel glides 
Gently, as if it feared to wake 
The slumbers of the silent tides." 

Moork. 
Night is in her wane ; day's early flush 
Glows like a hectic on her fading cheek, 
Wasting its beauty." 

Longfellow. 

" The dawning shines 
Above the misty mountains, and a hue 
Of vermil blushes in the cloudless blue, 
Like health disporting on the downy cheek : 
It is time's fairest moment. As a dove, 
Shading the earth with azure wings of love, 
The sky broods o'er us, and the cool winds speak 
The peace of nature." 

Per ci v a l. 



THE COMPARISON, 27 

The comparisons of intelligent beings and their 
actions to natural objects, are often eminently 
elegant : 

" They are as gentle 
As zephyrs blowing below the violet, 
Not wagging his sweet head ; and yet as rough, 
Their royal blood enchafed, as the rud'st wind, 
That by the top doth take the mountain pine, 
And make him stoop to the vale." 



Shakspeare. 



" She walks in beauty, like the night 
Of cloudless climes and starry skies, 
And all that 's best of dark and light 
Meet in her aspect and her eyes." 



Byron. 



"As when devouring flames some forest seize 
On the high mountains, splendid from afar 
The blaze appears ; so moving on the plain 
The steel-clad host innumerous flashed to heaven." 

Iliad, b. ii. 

" The flaming myriads quick their gleamy crowns 
In awe presented ; as when mighty winds, 
Sweeping a bloomy forest, lowly bend 
The towering shapes, and wide their flowers bestrew 
Over the verdrous earth. So stooped the host, 
And sang adoring." 






28 THE COMPARISON. 

Byron's comparison of the writhings of the mind 
under the stings of conscience, to the tortures of a 
scorpion surrounded by fire, is one of the most 
impressive pictures ever drawn by a human pencil : 

" The mind that broods o'er guilty woes 
Is like the scorpion girt by fire, 
In circle narrowing as it glows ; 
Till inly searched by thousand throes, 
And maddening in her ire, 
One sole and sad relief she knows — 
The sting she nourished for her foes, 
Whose venom never proved in vain, 
Gives but one pang, and cures all pain, 
And darts it into her desperate brain. 
So do the dark in soul expire, 
Or live, like scorpion, girt by fire. 
So writhes the soul remorse hath riven, 
Unloved of earth, unblessed of heaven ; 
Darkness above, despair beneath, 
Around it flame, within it death." 

These specimens exemplify the rules which should 
be observed in forming comparisons. 1. The re- 
semblance on which they are founded should be 
obvious and striking ; 2. They should be expressed 
with distinctness and brevity ; 3. In those in which 
the nature of the resemblance is specified, only such 



THE COMPARISON. 29 

particulars should be embodied as give complete- 
ness to the similitude, and heighten its force and 
beauty. 

"What is a simile ? How many classes of similes are there ? How- 
do they differ ? Which is the most elegant, and contributes most 
to dignify and adorn a composition ? "What is the first chief 
characteristic of a comparison ? What is the second ? What are 
the rules by which they should be framed ? 

The questions that follow respecting the poetical passages of the 
chapter, assume that the learner, as recommended in the preface, 
will study chapters xvii. and xviii., on the structure and modula- 
tion of verse, before proceeding to the Comparison. 

What lines begin with a trochee in the passage from Homer, 
" But his days were few," p. 18? What is it that gives beauty to 
the close? Where does the caesura fall in the several lines of 
the passage " Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow " ? Where 
does it fall in the quotation from Milton, "He above the rest"? 
Which of the lines commence with a trochee ? What effect has 
that foot on the modulation? Designate the caesura in the next 
quotation from Milton, and point out the lines in it that begin with 
a trochee. What is there in the structure of the last line of the 
passage from Homer, " Commotion shook," that gives a peculiar 
force and beauty to the cadence ? Of what feet is the stanza from 
Scott formed ? Of what feet is the verse formed, " Like a boat on 
the wave " ? 

In order to familiarize learners still further with the figure, and 
prepare them to employ it in conversation and writing, the follow- 
ing, and other similar lessons, may be given : 

1. There are two comparisons in the first Psalm. Point them 
out, and show to what class they belong. 

2. How many comparisons are there in the second Psalm ? 



30 THE COMPAEISON. 

3. Are there any in the third or fourth? 

4. How many are there in Job, chap. xiv. ? 

5. How many are there in the first three verses of Kevelation, 
chap. x. ? 

6. How many are there in the first seven verses of Revelation, 
chap. iv. ? 

*7. Which is the most sublime in Job, chap. xi. ! 

8. Which is the most beautiful in Job, chap. xii. f 

When lessoDs are thus set the scholar should give the answers in 
writing. 

To lead the learners to observe and express resemblances, and 
discipline their taste, they should be required to form comparisons ; 
and, to assist them, subjects may be suggested, as : What do the 
motions of a field of grain, under a rapid wind, resemble ? What 
is the slow movement of a cloud along the air like ? To what 
object would you compare a beautiful child? What passes through 
the mind that is like a flash of lightning glancing across the sky ? 
What resembles an expiring taper ? 

Scholars should be allowed, if they choose, to select their own 
subjects; they should be required to form comparisons of both 
classes, and to write them, that they may be better criticised. 

It will be highly useful to scholars to transcribe in a book the 
finest comparisons that occur in the Scriptures, and in the orators, 
poets, historians, and other writers ; and to accustom themselves to 
express, in prose or verse, the fine resemblances that are suggested 
to them by their own observation of the natural and moral world, 
and the operations of their own minds. 



THE METAPHOR. 31 



CHAPTEK ni. 



THE METAPHOR. 



A Metaphor is an affirmation, or representation 
by words, that an agent, object, quality, or act, is 
that which it merely resembles ; as " God is " called 
" a shield to them that trust in him," to signify that 
he protects them, as a shield protects a person who 
holds it, from the arrows or javelins that are shot at 
him. " Joseph " is called " a fruitful bough, a fruit- 
ful bough by a well, whose branches run over the 
wall" (Gen. xlix. 22), to indicate his advantageous 
position and great prosperity. It is said of wisdom, 
" She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon 
her" (Prov. iii. 18) ; and of Zion, " Thou shalt be a 
beautiful crown in the hand of Jehovah, and a royal 
diadem in the grasp of thy God " (Isa. lxii. 3). A 
bird is said to sail when it flies without moving its 
wings, to signify that its motion is like that of a 
ship driven forward with its out-spread canvas by 
the wind ; and a ship sailing rapidly is said to fly, 



32 THE METAPHOR. 

to show that in ease and celerity its motion is like 
that of a bird. 

The metaphor is thus a verbal figure, and differs 
from the simile by directly ascribing to agents and 
objects the natures, the characteristics, or acts, of 
other beings and things, which, in the comparison, 
are themselves the medium of the figure ; as in the 
following passages : " I am thy shield " (Gen. xv. 1) ; 
and " Thou Lord wilt bless the righteous, with favor 
wilt thou compass him as with a shield " (Ps. v. 12) ; 
in the first of which the word shield is used by a 
metaphor, in the other the shield itself is used by a 
simile. The meaning of a metaphorical expression, 
accordingly, is precisely what that of a comparison 
would be if the things, the names of which are used 
by the metaphor, were employed to illustrate the 
same object by a comparison. Thus the sentences : 
God is a rock, and God is like a rock, are in sense 
the same. So also the metaphor, " I will make thee 
a fenced brazen wall " (Jer. xv. 20), is equivalent to 
the simile, I will make thee like a fenced brazen 
wall. The metaphor is the most bold and emphatic; 
the simile, as it admits a fuller exhibition of the re- 
semblances, is often the most illustrative and elegant. 

Metaphors, like comparisons, are of two kinds. In 
the first, that to which the figure is applied, is directly 
declared to be that, of which the word used by the 



THE METAPHOK, 33 

figure is the proper name ; as " God is a sun and 
shield " (Ps. lxxxiv. 11) ; " A virtuous woman is a 
crown to her husband" (Prov. xii. 4); " My son, 
hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the 
law of thy mother ; for they shall be an ornament 
of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck" 
(Prov. i. 8, 9) ; "I will make my words in thy mouth 
fire " (Jer. v. 14) ; " I will make Jerusalem a cwp of 
trembling to all the people round about " (Zech. xii, 
2) ; " I will make yon fishers of men " (Matt. iv. 19). 

Yerbs, the names of acts, are also metaphorized 
in the same manner as nouns: "Thou crownest the 
year with goodness;" u The fields smile;" "The 
skies frown" 

In all metaphors of this class the persons or things 
to which the figure is applied, are expressly named 
as the subject of the metaphor. 

In the second class, there is an ellipsis of the 
direct affirmation that the person or object to which 
the figure is applied, is that which the term used by 
the metaphor denotes, and it is spoken of as though 
that affirmation had been previously made ; as 
when the prophet, addressing the rulers and people 
of Jerusalem, says, " Hear the word of the Lord, ye 
rulers of Sodom ; give ear unto the law of our God, 
ye people of Gomorrah " (Isa. i. 10) ; the import of 
which is the same as though the expression had 
2* 



34 THE METAPHOR. 

been, Hear ye, who are rulers of Sodom, and give 
ear ye who are people of Gomorrah. In like manner, 
the meaning of the passage, " The daughter of Zion 
is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a 
garden of cucumbers, as a city that has been be- 
sieged " (Is. i. 8), is the same as though the language 
had been, The people who are the daughter of Zion 
are left as a cottage, as a lodge, and as a city that 
has been besieged. Who or what it is to which the 
metaphorical name is applied, is always known from 
the connexion; as in the following passages, in 
which it is seen that daughter is used for a people, 
and the people of Jerusalem : " Loose thyself from 
the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion ; 
for thus saith the Lord, ye have sold yourselves 
for naught, and ye shall be redeemed without 
money" (Isa. lii. 2, 3) ; " Behold the Lord hath pro- 
claimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the 
daughter of Zion, Behold thy salvation cometh; 
behold his reward is with him, and his work before 
him. And they shall call them the holy people, the 
redeemed of the Lord " (Isa. lxii. 11, 12). 
The characteristics of the metaphor are : 

1. The figure lies in the peculiar use of a word, 
or words, in contradistinction from a thin^. 

2. The metaphorical proposition consists of two 
parts— the subject to which the figure is applied, or 



THE METAPHOR. 35 

of which the metaphorical affirmation is made ; and 
the affirmation itself. Thus in the expression, " all 
flesh is grass," the nominative "all flesh" is the sub- 
ject of the sentence, and the verb and noun " is 
grass " the affirmation. 

3. The name of the subject of the figure, or that to 
which it is applied, is always used in its literal 
sense ; as in the expression, " God is my fortress," 
God, the nominative of the proposition, is used 
literally as the name of Jehovah ; not by a meta- 
phor, as the name of some other being. In the 
expression, " Say unto wisdom thou art my sister, 
and call understanding thy kinswoman " (Prov. vii. 
4), it is wisdom, not anything else, that is called a 
sister ; and understanding, and not anything else, 
that is denominated a kinswoman. And, in like 
manner, when it is said, "the fields smile," "the 
winds sigh," " the raindrops dance," " the heavens 
frown," it is the literal fields, the literal winds, the 
literal raindrops, and the real heavens, that are the 
subjects of that which the several verbs are em- 
ployed to denote ; not objects of another kind. If the 
names of the subjects of which the affirmations are 
made were not used literally, there would be no 
means of knowing what the agents or things are for 
which they stand. How, for example, could it be 
known what the word boat, in the expression " the 



36 THE METAPHOR. 

boat gallops over the waves," means ; or the noun 
ship, in the proposition, " the ship flies along the 
water," if the words boat and ship were not used in 
their proper sense, to denote a real boat and a real 
ship, to the exclusion of everything else ? When the 
subject of the metaphorical term is not expressly 
mentioned in the proposition itself, as in elliptical 
metaphors, it is still indicated with equal certainty 
in the connexion. 

4. The figure lies wholly in the affirmative part 
of the proposition ; as in the prediction, " The 
mountains and the hills shall break forth before 
you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall 
clap hands " (Isa. lv. 12), the predicates, " shall 
break forth into singing," and " shall clap hands," 
are the parts that are used by the figure ; the 
nominatives, " the mountains and the hills " and 
" the trees," are employed in their literal sense. 
In like manner, in the expressions, " The beasts 
of the field shall honor me ; " " The land 
mourneth, it languisheth ;" " Lebanon is put to 
shame ;" " The desert and the waste shall be glad, 
and the wilderness shall rejoice and flourish ;" the 
metaphor lies exclusively in the predicates ; that is, 
in the declarations made by the verbs. 

This and the preceding characteristics belong to 
metaphors universally, and are of the utmost im- 






THE METAPHOK. 37 

portance, as they render it certain that that of 
which the metaphorical affirmation is made, is the 
subject literally of that which the figurative ex- 
pression denotes ; as when it is said, " Judah is a 
lion's whelp," it is Judah literally, not anything 
else, to whom that is ascribed, which is meant by 
the declaration that he is a lion's whelp. 

5. The peculiarity of the metaphorical use of words 
lies in their being applied affirmatively to subjects 
to which that which they properly signify does not 
really belong, but only something that resembles it ; 
as God is said by the figure to be "a consuming 
fire" which he is not really, to signify that in the 
exercise of his justice he is to his enemies like a 
consuming fire. The fields are said to smile — a 
movement of which they are incapable — to denote 
that when clothed in verdure, and lighted up by 
sunshine, they exhibit a cheerfulness and beauty 
that resembles a smile. 

6. The terms, therefore, that are used by this 
figure always carry with them their literal sense, not 
a** different or modified meaning. Thus when the 
valleys are said to laugh, and the floods to clap 
hands, it is laughing that is affirmed of the valleys, 
and clapping hands that is ascribed to the floods, 
not anything else ; and the object of the affirmation 
is to signify, in a bold and emphatic manner, that 



38 THE METAPHOR. 

the appearances and movements which they exhibit, 
resemble, in cheerfulness and gladness, laughter and 
clapping hands in human beings. 

7. When the figure ascribes a nature to an agent 
or thing that does not belong to it, the acts or events 
that are then affirmed of it are such as are proper 
to that imputed nature, not to its own. Thus when 
night is denominated a goddess, it is exhibited • as 
having a throne, and stretching forth a sceptre over 
the world. To determine whether a word is used 
literally or metaphorically, is simply to ascertain 
whether that which it literally signifies, is proper and 
natural to the subj ect of which it is affirmed, or not. 
In the expression, for example, " green fields are 
beautiful," as the predicate, " are beautiful," is truly 
and properly descriptive of green fields, it is used 
literally ; in the expression, however, " the land- 
scape smiles," as a smile is not proper to a land- 
scape, but only a cheerful appearance that resem- 
bles a smile, the verb is used metaphorically. 

All classes of words are used by the figure. Jjpuns. 
are often metaphorized ; thus, " God " is a sun, a 
shield, a rock, a fortress, a high tower (Ps. lxxxiv. 
11 ; xviii. 2). 

" Happiness, 
It is the gay to-morrow of the mind 

That never comes." 

Proctor. 



THE METAPHOR. 39 

" Yon graylines 
That fret the clouds are messengep&m morn." 

Shakspeaee. 

: The spider's most attenuatedjiuead 
Is cordyis~cable, txTman's tender tie 
On earthly bliss — it breaks at every breeze." 

Young. 

Lire's but a walking shadow; a poor pbayer, 
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, 
And then is heard no more. It is a tale 
Told by an idiot — full of sound and fury, 
Signifying nothing." 

Shakspeare. 

Many of the most beautiful noun metaphors of 
the poets are elliptical : 



" Night, sable goddess ! from her ebon throne, 
In rayless majesty, now stretches forth 
Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumbering world. 
Silence how dread ! and darkness how profound ! 

Young. 

" Above me are the Alps, 
The palaces of nature, whose vast walls 
Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy svalps. 
And throned eternity in icy halls 
Of cold sublimity ; where forms and falls 



40 THE METAPHOR. 

The avalanche, the thunderbolt of snow ! 
All that expands the spirit yet appals 
Gathers around their summits, as to show 
How earth may pierce to heaven, and leave vain man below." 

Byron. 

Verbs are still more frequently metaphorized : 

1 ■» 

" Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity." 

IsTTvii. 15. 

" And the wilderness shall rejoice and nourish ; 

The well- watered plain of Jordan shall also rejoice ; 

The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, 

The beauty of Carmel and of Sharon ; 

These sha ll behold the beauty of Jehovah, 

The majesty of our God." 

Lowth's Is. xxxv. 1, 2. 

" Her gates shall lament and mourn.'' 1 

Is. m, 26. 

" Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be pou ted o ut 
upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the 
trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground, and it 
shall burn, and shall not be quenched" 

Jer. vii. 20. 

" Look what envious streaks 
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east : 
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day 
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops." 

Shaxspeare. 






THE METAPHOK. 4:1 

" The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, 
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven ; 
And, in imagination, bodies forth 
The forms of things unknown ; the poet's pen 
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing 
A local habitation and a name." 

Sbakspeare. 

" There 's not a wind but whispers of thy name, 
And not a flower that sleeps beneath the moon 
But in its hues or fragrance tells a tale 
Of thee." 

Proctor. 

" On our quiek'st decrees 
The inaudible and noiseless foot of time 
Steals ere we can effect them." 

Shakspeare. 

In many of the most beautiful passages of the 
poets both nouns and verbs are used by the figure : 

" High towers old JEtna, with his feet deep clad 
In the green sandals of the freshful spring ; 
His sides arrayed in winter, and his front 
Shooting aloft the everlasting flame." 

Shiel. 

Adjectives, also, and participles are often used by 



42 THE METAPH0K. 

the figure, as in some of the passages already- 
quoted, and the following : 

" Her sunny locks 
Hung on her temple like a golden fleece." 

Sbakspeare. 

" I Ve seen ere now, 
On some wild ruin, moss'd and gray, 
A flower as fair, as sweet as thou, 

Blessing with bloom its latest day ! 
Thy friendship, like the faithful flower — 

Surviving much, defying all — 
Has caused on sorrow's saddest hour 
Some streaks of happier hue to fall." 

Barton. 

" Say, gentle night ! whose modest maiden beams 
Give us a new creation, and present 
The world's great picture softened to the sight ; 
Nay, kinder far, far more indulgent still, 
Say thou whose mild dominion's silver key 
Unlocks our hemisphere, and sets to view 
Worlds beyond number ; worlds concealed by day 
Behind the proud and envious star of noon ?" 

Young. 
** What softened remembrances come o'er the heart 
In gazing on those we 've been lost to so long ! 
The sorrows, the joys, of which once they were part, 
Still round them, like visions of yesterday, throng." 

Moore. 



THE METAPHOR. 43 

A large share of the metaphors in which adjectives 

are used are elliptical; as the golden fleece, the 

faithful flower, the proud and envious star ; which 

are equivalent to the fleece which is golden, the 

flower which is faithful, the star which is proud and 

envious. 

Adverbs, also, are sometimes used by the figure, 

as: 

" There was something 

In my native air that buoy'd my spirits up ; 

Like a ship on the ocean tossed by storms, 

But proudly still bestriding the high waves, 

And holding on its course." 

Byron. 

Prepositions, likewise, are sometimes employed 
by the figure, especially in propositions that relate 
to the mind. Thus objects are said to come into the 
thoughts, thoughts to rise in the mind, and desires 
and acts to go from the heart : 

" What softened remembrances come o'er the heart ! " 

" Something heavy on my spirit — 
Too dull for wakefulness, too quick for slumber — 
Sits on me, as a cloud along the sky, 
Which will not let the sunbeams through, nor yet 
Descend in rain and end, but spreads itself 
'Twixt earth and heaven, an everlasting mist." 

Byron. 



4'4: THE METAPHOE. 

In these, and other similar passages, there is a 
virtual ascription of dimensions to the mind, its 
faculties, and its thoughts, and it is in that that 
the figure lies. 

In some of the most elegant forms of the figure 
whole actions — expressed by verbs, nouns, ad- 
jectives, adverbs, and prepositions — are meta- 
phorized. Thus Shakspeare says of man : 

" To-day he puts forth 
The tender leaves of hope : to-morrow blossoms, 
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him : 
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost, 
And nips his root — and then he falls." 

"What is a metaphor ? How does it differ from a simile ? How 
many classes are there ? What are they ? How is it known what 
the subjects are to which elliptical metaphors are applied ? What 
is the first characteristic of the figure ? What is the second ? What 
is the third ? What are the two parts of a metaphorical propo- 
sition? Give an example. What is the fourth characteristic? 
What is the fifth ? What is the sixth ? What parts of speech are 
used by the figure ? Which are used most frequently ? Give an 
example in which a noun is used by the figure. Give one in which 
a verb is used. Eepeat one in which an adjective is employed. 
Give an example of the use of an adverb by the figure. Give an 
instance of a preposition that is employed metaphorically. 

Where does the caesura fall in the lines from Byron "Above 
me are the Alps " ? Which of the lines begins with a trochee' ? 
Where does the pause fall in the lines " High towers old iEtna 



THE METAPHOK. 45 

with his feet deep clad " ? With what feet do the several lines 
begin ? What is there in the last that gives it a peculiarly fine modu- 
lation? Where does the pause fall in the lines from Young 
" Say, gentle night, whose modest maiden beams " ? 

LESSONS. 

What word is used metaphorically in the following lines ? 
" All flowers will droop in absence of the sun 
That wak'd their sweets." 

Drtden. 

In the following lines, omitting the sixth, two verbs are used 
by the figure. Which are they ? And how many comparisons are 
there in it ? 

" As^slow our ship her foamy track 
Against the wind was cleaving, 
Her trembling pennant still look'd back 
To that dear isle 't was leaving. 
I So loth we part from all we love, 
From all the links that bind us ; 
-^ So turn our hearts, where'er we rove, 

To those we 've left behind us." 

Moore. 

In the following lines there is a comparison ; and one adjective, 
one verb, and three nouns, are used metaphorically. Point them 
out. 

"Sweet are the uses of adversity ; 
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. 
And this our life, exempt from public haunt, 
Finds to ngue s in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in everything." 

■■' ■*■ Shakspeare. 



46 THE METAPHOR. 

"What metaphors are there in the following lines ? 

" Up springs the lark, 
Shrill voiced and loud, the messenger of morn ; 
Ere yet the shadows fly, he mounted sings 
Amid the dawning clouds, and from their haunts 
Calls up the tuneful nations." 

Thomsox. 

In the first of the following stanzas, addressed to an embalmed 
body, there are three nouns and one adjective used by the figure ; 
in the second, two nouns, one adjective, two participles, and one 
verb. Which are they ? 

" Statue of flesh ! immortal of the dead ! 
Imperishable type of evanescence ! 
Posthumous man, who quit'st thy narrow bed, 
And standest undecayed within our presence ; 
Thou wilt hear nothing till the judgment morning, 
When the great trump shall thrill thee with its warning. 

"Why should this worthless tegument endure 
If its undying guest be lost for ever ? 
0, let us keep the soul embalmed and pure 
In living virtue ; that when both must sever, 
Although corruption may our frame consume, 
The immortal spirit in the skies may bloom." 

Campbell. 

The following analysis of the passage will assist the learner in 
determining what words are used by the figure : The metaphorical 
words are, statue, immortal, type, bed, tegument, guest, lost, 



THE METAPHOR. 47 

embalmed, living, and bloom. 1. A statue is an image of the 
human form, wrought by art, of wood, clay, stone, metal, or 
some other substance; an embalmed body, therefore, is not a 
statue, but only resembles one in hardness and durability. It is 
thence denominated a statue by a metaphor, and an elliptical one, 
as the direct affirmation of it is omitted. 2. "Whatever is immortal 
has life, but such a body is without life. It is called immortal 
therefore, simply because, like an immortal existence, it is impe- 
rishable, or of a nature that precludes decay ; that adjective, 
accordingly, is used by a metaphor in its elliptical form. 3. A type 
of evanescence is an emblem or representative of it. A body, how- 
ever, rendered imperishable by embalming, instead of such a type, 
is an emblem of permanence. It only resembles an emblem of 
evanescence, therefore, in that in nature and shape it is still a 
human form, which is naturally perishable. Type is accordingly 
used by an elliptical metaphor. 4. A bed is an article on which 
the living sleep ; it is by a metaphor, accordingly, that the coffin, 
sarcophagus, or vault, in which the embalmed body lay, is called a 
bed, because of the resemblance of its use to that of a bed, and the 
figure, is in this instance also elliptical. 5. A tegument is a covering 
of a material thing. As the body is called the tegument of the 
soul, which is immaterial, the term is used by an elliptical meta- 
phor. 6. A guest is a stranger or visitor, who is received in a 
dwelling and entertained ; but the soul is called the guest of the 
body, which is its natural residence, because its stay in it, like that 
of a visitor, was but temporary ; and the term is used by an ellip^ 
tical metaphor. *7. As the soul cannot be literally lost nor em- 
balmed, nor virtue have a literal life, embalmed and living are used 
by a metaphor, the first and second to signify the preservation of 
the soul from the destructive consequences and impressions of sin, 
and the other that virtue should be made active and continuous, 
like the life of a conscious existence. 8. The spirit cannot literally 
blossom. The verb bloom is employed by a metaphor to signify that 



48 THE METAPHOE. 

it may exist in a form, and make manifestations of itself, that in 
moral beauty and excellence shall resemble the blooming of a plant 
or tree. 

In the following description of a skull, there are eleven nouns, 
two adjectives, and one verb, used by the figure. "Which are 
they? 

"Look at its broken arch, its ruined wall, 
Its chambers desolate, its portals foul : 
Yes, this was once ambition's airy hall, 
The dome of thought, the palace of the soul ; 
Behold through each lacklustre, eyeless hole, 
The gay recess of wisdom and of wit, 
And passion's host, that never brook'd control : 
Can all that saint, sage, sophist ever writ, 
People this lonely tower, this tenement refit ?" 

Byron. 

In the following passage on the passions, there are two nouns 
used by the figure, one adjective, five verbs, and three participles. 
There are also two comparisons. "Which are they? 

" Their breath is agitation, and their life 
A storm whereon they ride, to sink at last ; 
And yet so nursed and bigoted to strife, 
That should their days, surviving perils past, 
Melt to calm twilight, they feel overcast 
"With sorrow and supineness, and so die. 
Even as a flame unfed, which runs to waste 
"With its own flickering ; or a sword laid by, 
"Which eats into itself, and rusts ingloriously." 

Byron. 

"What metaphors are there in the following passage ? 



THE METArilOE. 49 

"ISiow morn, her rosy steps in the eastern clime 

Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl." 

Milton. 

In the following description of an Alpine storm there are two 
comparisons ; and in the first stanza three nouns, three adjectives, 
and four verbs; and in the second, five nouns, one adjective, one 
verb, and two participles, are used by a metaphor. "Which are they ? 

*' The sky is changed. And such a change ! Oh, night, 
And storm, and darkness, ye are wondrous strong ; 
Yet lovely in your strength, as is the light 
Of a dark eye in woman. Far along, 
From peak to peak, the rattling crags among, 
Leaps the live thunder ! Not from one lone cloud, 
But every mountain now hath found a tongue; 
And Jura answers, through her misty shroud, 
Back to the joyous Alps, who call on her aloud J 

" And this is in the night. Most glorious night ! 
Thou wast not sent for slumber! Let me be 
A sharer in thy fierce and far delight, 
A portion of the tempest and of thee ! 
How the lit lake shines — a phosphoric sea ; 
And the big rain comes dancing to the earth ! 
And now again 't is black ; and now the glee 
Of the loud hills shakes with its mountain mirth, 
As if they did rejoice o'er a young earthquake's birth." 

Byron. 

Let each scholar form a sentence in which a noun is metaphor- 
ized. Let each form one in which a verb is metaphorized. Let 
each form one in which an adjective is used by the figure. Let 
each form one in which a noun and verb are used by it. Let each 
form one with a metaphorical noun, verb, and adjective. 

3 



50 THE METONYMY. 



CHAPTEK IT. 



THE METONYMY. 



The Metonymy is a change of name, by the 
denomination of a thing by a noun that is not its 
proper nor its metaphorical denominative, but is the 
proper name of something with which, as a scene, 
place, cause, effect, or source, it is intimately con- 
nected ; as when a person is said to have a clear 
head instead of a clear mind ; and to keep a good 
table instead of good food ; and when the name of 
a place is put for its population ; as, " Assyria, the 
rod of mine anger " (Is. x. 5), in which the armies 
of Assyria are meant, instead of the country. 
"Thou hast forsaken thy people, the house of 
Jacob " (Is. ii. 6), where house is put for family, or 
descendants. " Ye have consumed the vineyard " 
(Is. iii. 14) ; " Your land, strangers devour it " (Is. 
i. 7), in which vineyard and land are put for 
their fruits. "Ramah trembles, Gibeah of Saul 



THE METONYMY. 51 

flees, Madmenah wanders" (Is. x. 29, 31), in which 
these names of places are put for their inhabitants. 

The metonymy is founded on an intimate con- 
nexion of that to which the borrowed name is given 
with that from which it is transferred ; not, like the 
metaphor, on a resemblance between them. There 
is no likeness between a city and the inhabitants 
that reside in it ; between a country and its popu- 
lation; nor between the head and the mind that 
animates it. It is a verb al figure , therefore, or lies 
in the artificial use of a word, noTin the use of a 
thing. 

The figure occurs frequently in the Scriptures ; 
as, " Jehovah of hosts, him shall ye sanctify ; he 
shall be jour fear, and he your dread " (Is. viii. 13), 
where fear and dread are put for their object. "Is 
this the man that made the earth shake, that made 
the kingdoms tremble " (Is. xiv. 16) ? It was not in 
the power of the king of Babylon to make the earth 
shake, or kingdoms tremble ; they are used, there- 
fore, by metonymy for the population of the earth, 
and the rulers of the kingdoms. " And it was told 
the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate 
with Ephraim ; and his heart was moved, and the 
heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are 
moved with the wind " (Is. vii. 2). Here house is put 
for Ahaz the king, and his family, the descendants 



52 THE METONYMY. 

of David ; Syria for its population, or rulers ; and 
heart for the mind. The figure is employed also by 
the poets, as in the following, in which world is used 
for i ts inhabitants : 

" The world may dance along the flowery plain, 
Chased as they go by many a sprightly train." 

Thomson. 

In the following, heaven is put for God who 
reigns there : - - 

" Inquirer cease ; petitions yet remain 
While Heaven may hear, nor deem religion vain : 
Still raise for good the supplicating voice, 
But leave to Heaven the measure and the choice." 

Johnson. 

In the following, year is put for the products of 
the year : 

" Blossoms, and fruits, and flowers, together rise ; 
And the whole year in gay confusion lies." 

Addison. 

" In these green days 
Keviving sickness lifts her languid head, 
Life flows afresh, and young-ey'd health exalts 



THE METONYMY. 53 

The whole creation round ; contentment walks 
The sunny glade, and feels an inward bliss 
Spring o'er his mind, beyond the power of kings 
To purchase." 

Thomson. 

Here sickness, health, and contentment, are put 
for persons who are subjects of them. 

In the following, the heart, which grief assails, is 
put for the person who grieves : 

" The silent heart which grief assails 
Treads soft and lonesome o'er the vales ; 
Sees daisies open, rivers run, 
And seeks, as I have vainly done, 
Amusing thought ; but learns to know 
That solitude 's the nurse of woe." 

Paenell. 

Age, in the following passage, is put for the 
aged: 

" Age should fly concourse, cover in retreat 
Defects of judgment and the will subdue ; 
"Walk thoughtful on the silent solemn shore 
Of that vast ocean it must sail so soon." 

Young. 

The figure is often used in conversation; as, 
" Did he pay you in paper or in coin ?" " He paid 



54: THE METONYMY. 

me in paper ;" where paper, the name of the 
material, is put for the promises printed on it ; that 
is, for bank bills. 

"What is metonymy? How does it differ from the metaphor? 
Give examples from the Bible. Give examples from the poets. 
Give examples from conversation. 



THF SYNECDOCHE. 55 



CHAPTEK V. 



THE SYNECDOCHE. 



The Synecdoche is the use of a term that pro- 
perly denotes only a part of a thing, or one of a 
kind, in place of one that denotes the whole ; or of 
one that denotes the whole instead of one that sig- 
nifies only a part ; as a species for a genus, or a 
genus for a species ; a day for time, the hand for the 
whole person. Thus, in the following passage, 
swords and spears are put for military weapons 
generally : " And he shall judge among the nations, 
and rebuke many people ; and they shall beat their 
swords into ploughshares, and their spears into 
pruning-hooks : nation shall not lift up sword 
against nation, neither shall they learn war any 
more" (Is. ii. 4). As iron and steel are used in 
many other battle weapons, and the discontinuance 
of war will as naturally lead to their appropriation 
to the arts of peace, swords and spears, which, in 



56 THE SYNECDOCHE. 

the age of the prophet, were the chief weapons 
employed in battle, are obviously put for the instru- 
ments of war generally that are capable of being 
converted to peaceful uses. In like manner, plough- 
shares and pruning-hooks are put for the instruments 
generally of husbandry and other unwarlike arts. 
In the following passage, the implements of agri- 
culture and of war are used in the opposite order : 
" Prepare war ; wake up the mighty men ; let all 
the men of war draw near ; let them come up. 
Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your 
pruning-hooks into spears " (Joel iii. 9, 10). In the 
following passage day is used by the figure : " These 
are the generations of the heavens and of the earth 
when they were created, in the day that the Lord 
God made the earth and the heavens " (Gen. iL 4). 
As the creation occupied six days, the term is here 
used synonymously with days, or time. It is em- 
ployed in the same manner in the expressions, " the 
day of power," " the day of temptation," " the day 
of trouble," " the day of adversity," " the day of 
wrath." Inhabitant is sometimes used by the figure 
for inhabitants, and man for men ; as, " And now, 
O inhabitant of Judah, judge, I pray you, between 
me and my vineyard " (Is. v. 3), in which the 
appeal is made to the whole population of Jeru- 
salem and Judea. In Isaiah vii. 18, 19, the fly and 



THE SYNECDOCHE. 57 

the bee, as names of genera, are used for swarms 
and multitudes of those insects : " And it shall be in 
that day that Jehovah will hiss to the fly which is 
at the end of the rivers of Egypt, and to the bee 
which is in Assyria, and they shall come and rest 
all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the clefts 
of the rocks, and in all thorn-hedges, and in all 
pastures." In passages like the following, man is 
put for mankind : "As for man, his days are as 
grass ; as a flower of the field so he flourisheth, for 
the wind passeth over it and it is gone " (Ps. ciii. 
15, 16). " Man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly 
upward " (Job v. 7). Hand is sometimes put by the 
figure for the person ; as, " My hand hath found the 
kingdoms of the idols ;" and " My hand hath found 
as a nest the wealth of the nations " (Is. x. 10, 14), 
for /have found them. 

In expressions like the following, " The Indians 
hunt the buffalo, the bear, and the wolf," the genera 
are put for individuals of those animals. So also in 
numerous expressions used in common life ; as, 
man tames the horse, the ox, the mule, the elephant ; 
he cultivates the potatoe, the melon, the apple, and 
the orange, the genus is put for individuals in 
great numbers and multitudes. 

The synecdoche is a verbal figure. It is not 
founded, like the metaphor, on resemblance ; nor 



SB THE SYNECDOCHE. 

like the metonymy, on the connexion of place with 
that which occupies it, of a cause with its effect, or 
of an instrument with the agent who uses it ; but of 
the relation of a part of a thing, or one of a kind, to 
the whole, or of the whole to a part. It is used 
much less frequently even than the metonymy, and 
far less than the metaphor and simile. 

What is the synecdoche ? On what is it founded ? How does it 
differ from the metaphor, simile, and metonymy ? Give examples 
of it. 



THE HYPERBOLE. 59 



CHAPTEE VI. 



THE HYPERBOLE 



The Hyperbole is an exhibition of things as 
greater or less in dimensions, more or less in 
number, or better or worse in kind than they really 
are : as it is said of a large man he is a giant ; of a 
small one he is a pigmy ; of an elegant and expen- 
sive house it is a palace ; and of a small, cheap, and 
unfashionable one it is a hovel. The figure is of 
rare occurrence in the sacred volume. There is an 
example (Job xl. 23), " He trusteth that he can 
draw up Jordan into his mouth." There are several 
in Isaiah ; as, " Their land also is full of silver and 
gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; 
their land is also full of horses, neither is there any 
end of their chariots ; their land also is full of idols " 
(chap. ii. 7, 8), where the land is said to be full of 
those objects, to denote that they were very 
abundant. 



60 THE HYPERBOLE, 

Expressions like the following — he is the first 
orator of the age ; he is the greatest of the living 
poets ; she is the most elegant woman of the time 
— are often nsed of those who are only distinguished 
for oratory, poetry, and beauty, not the most emi- 
nent for them. 

The objects to which the figure is applied actually 
have the qualities that are ascribed to them ; as it 
is only those who are truly beautiful who are said 
to be most beautiful, only those who are large who 
are called giants, and only those who are dwarfish 
who are said to be pigmies ; and the figure lies in 
representing their peculiarities as greater than they 
are. It differs, accordingly, from the comparison 
and metaphor, which are founded on resemblance ; 
from the metonymy, which is founded on the 
relation of different things to one another ; and from 
the synecdoche, which is founded on the relation 
of a part to the whole, or of the whole to a part. 

What is the hyperbole ? What is its peculiarity compared to 
the simile, metaphor, metonymy, and synecdoche ? Give examples 
of it. 



THE JTTPOCATASTASIS. 61 



CHAPTEE YIL 

THE HTPOCATASTASIS. 

A Hypocatastasis is a substitution, without a 
formal notice, of an act of one kind, with its object 
or conditions, for another, in order, by a resem- 
blance, to exemplify that for which the substitute is 
used. 

Thus a person attempting to accomplish some- 
thing that, either from its nature or his condition, is 
impossible, or extremely difficult, is said to " under- 
take to force his bark against wind and tide :" a 
work of one kind which is known to be hopeless, 
being employed to exemplify the impracticableness 
of the other. In like manner, it is said of one who 
encounters strong opposing influences in the accom- 
plishment of an object, " he is struggling against the 
current," or " he is trying to swim up stream ;" and 
of one who is endeavoring to effect an object with- 
out the requisite means, " he is attempting to make 



62 THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 

brick without straw," to exemplify the disadvan- 
tages under which he is working. 

The figure occurs very frequently in the Scrip- 
tures. One of the most beautiful examples of it is 
in the invitation (Is. lv. 1, 2) : 

" Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, 
And he that hath no money, come ye buy and eat 
Yea, come buy wine and milk, 
Without money, and without price. 
Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not 

bread, 
And your labor for that which satisfieth not ? 
Hearken diligently unto me, and eat that which is good, 
And let your soul delight itself in fatness." 

Here the gifts which God invites men to accept, 
are not really water, milk, honey, and bread ; nor 
the wants he proposes to supply, hunger and thirst ; 
but thirst and hunger, necessities of the body, are 
substituted for the analogous wants of the soul ; and 
water, milk, honey, and bread, for the gifts of grace 
by which those spiritual wants are supplied ; and 
the invitation to take the one is substituted for an 
invitation to accept and enjoy the other. In an 
equivalent invitation given by Christ, labor, and 
the pressure of a heavy burden, are used to repre- 
sent the analogous feelings produced by a sense of 



THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 63 

guilt ; and an easy yoke and light burden, to indi- 
cate the ease and peace of his service, " Come unto 
me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of 
me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall 
find rest unto your souls ; for my yoke is easy, and 
my burden is light " (Matt. xi. 28-30). It is not those 
who are struggling under the weight of an excessive 
burden whom Christ proposes to relieve, but those 
who are engaged in an analogous conflict for the 
salvation of their souls ; nor is it a literal yoke and 
burden which he calls them to assume, but they are 
used to represent the easy conditions of his service. 
To take Christ's yoke and burden is to submit to his 
rule, and bear the self-denial which obedience to 
him involves ; and the cheerful and joyous feeling 
of his disciples, compared to theirs who are depressed 
by a hopeless sense of guilt, is what an easy and 
light burden is compared to labor that exhausts, 
and a load that overwhelms by its excessive weight. 
The restraints and self-denials of his service are 
represented by him on another occasion by a cross. 
" If any man will come after me let him deny him- 
self, and take up his cross daily, and follow me " 
(Luke ix. 23). Bearing a literal cross, the instru- 
ment of crucifixion, and literally following Christ in 
the route he pursued in his ministry in Judea and 



64 THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 

Galilee, are not what are meant ; but the analogous 
self-renunciation and submission to restraint and 
self-denial which his service involves. In another 
instance, the restraints to which his disciples are 
subjected are exemplified by the narrow bounds 
within which travellers are compressed by a strait 
gate and narrow way, compared to those who pass 
through broad gates and open and spacious ways. 
"Enter ye in at the strait gate ; for wide is the gate 
and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, 
and many there be which go in thereat: because 
strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which 
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" 
(Matt. vii. 13, 14). Here entering a strait gate, and 
journeying in a narrow way, is put for living the 
life of self-denial that is to be crowned with eternal 
salvation ; and entering a broad gate, and travelling 
on a spacious road, are put for living in the lawless 
way that is to terminate in destruction. 

On the other hand, Christ's tenderness towards 
the weakest of his people is represented by his not 
crushing a bruised reed, and not quenching smoking 
flax : " He shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall any 
man hear his voice in the streets : a bruised reed 
shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not 
quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory " 
(Matt. xii. 19, 20). His forbearance towards a life 



THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 65 

on the point of destruction, and a tire on the yerge 
of extinction, is thus used to represent his patience 
and forbearance towards his people. 

This figure is wholly unlike the simile, metaphor, 
metonymy, synecdoche, and hyperbole. It is not a for- 
mal comparison of the act and its accompaniments 
which are used as the representatives, with that which 
they are employed to represent. It is not a direct 
affirmation, like the metaphor, that that which is re- 
presented, is that which is employed to represent it ; 
nor has the one any such intimate connexion with 
the other as exists between the objects used by 
metonymy, synecdoche, and hyperbole ; but one act, 
with its condition or accompaniments, is, without a 
formal notice, put in the place of another, and the 
hearer and reader is left to see, from the connexion, 
what it is which the substituted act and condition 
represents. 

Its characteristics are : 1st. It is an artificial use 
of a thing, not of a word. It is an act, and its 
accompanying object or condition, that is employed 
for illustration, not a word applied in an unusual 
relation. 2d. It is confined to the predicate of the 
proposition in which it occurs. It is the act, with 
its conditions, which that proposition expresses, 
exclusive of the agent to which the act is ascribed. 
In the expression, for example, " he is rowing 



66 THE HTPOCATASTASIS. 

against wind and tide," the figure is confined to the 
predicate ; that is, to the words which express the 
act of rowing, and its conditions, against wind and 
tide. 3d. The subject, or nominative of the figure, 
accordingly, is always used literally. It is the 
person who is said to be rowing who exerts the 
analogous act, which rowing against wind and tide 
is employed to represent ; not some other indi- 
vidual not named in the proposition. It is Christ 
who was not to break the bruised reed, nor quench 
the smoking flax, who is to exercise that tender and 
patient providence towards the faintest of his disci- 
ples, which the forbearance, denoted by his not 
breaking and quenching, is employed to repre- 
sent. 4th. The acts and conditions ascribed to 
agents by the figure are such as are proper to their 
nature ; not like those used by the metaphor, that 
are proper only to agents or things of a different 
order. Thus, persons may actually try to row 
against a current, make brick without straw, bear a 
cross, and carry a heavy burden, and may succeed ; 
and so of all other states and forms of agency that 
are used by the figure. 5. The resemblance on 
which the simile and metaphor are founded is one 
of nature or kind ; but the acts and conditions used 
by this figure are in kind wholly unlike those which 
they are employed to exemplify; and the resem- 



THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 67 

blance is one of the ease or difficulty with which 
they are exerted, the strength or weakness, the 
lightness or burdensomeness, with which they are 
marked, the advantages or disadvantages that 
result from them, or other similar characteristics or 
accompaniments. In the comparison of the sailing 
of a ship to the flying of a bird, the things compared 
— which are motions forward in space — are the 
same ; the one produced by the impulse of the wind 
on the sails, the other by the stroke of the wings on 
the air ; and they resemble each other also in ease 
and rapidity. But there is no such likeness between 
the act of attempting to row a boat against a violent 
current, and trying, for example, against the settled 
wishes of a people, to accomplish something that 
depends on their will. The only resemblance they 
present is in the greatness of the obstacles that are 
to be overcome, and the hopelessness of the under- 
taking. In like manner, there is no resemblance in 
kind between the act of bearing a cross and the 
performance of a self : denying mental duty, such as 
abstaining from forbidden pleasures, or enduring 
reproach for Christ's sake. The likeness they bear 
to each other is in the strenuous effort they require, 
and the self-denial they involve. The figure is thus 
employed in expressing resemblances between the 
difficulties, the dispositions, the sensations, the 



68 THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 

results, or other characteristics that mark acts of 
different kinds ; not, like the simile and metaphor, 
in exhibiting likenesses of nature that subsist 
between agents or things themselves, that are the 
agents or objects of acts. 

The hypocatastasis, though one of the most 
frequent, most expressive, and most beautiful figures 
of the Scriptures, and of conversation, has been 
wholly overlooked by rhetoricians, or confounded 
with the comparison and metaphor. How familiar 
it was to the Hebrews, and how essential the know- 
ledge of it is to the interpretation of the sacred 
writings, is seen from the fact, that it is employed 
over one hundred times in the first ten chapters of 
Isaiah. Thus (chap. i. 5, 6) the condition of a 
person faint from bruising and laceration, and left 
without medical aid, is used to represent the 
analogous condition of the Israelites under the 
judgments which God had inflicted on them. " The 
whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint : from 
the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no 
soundness in it, but wounds, and bruises, and pu- 
trifying sores : they have not been closed, neither 
bound up, neither mollified with ointment." That 
it is the condition of the Israelitish people, not of an 
individual, which is here meant, is apparent, from 
the fact that it is Israel of whom the prophet is 



THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 69 

formally speaking, and of whom tie inquires imme- 
diately before, " Why should ye be stricken any 
more ?" inasmuch as the scourging they had already 
received had reduced them to the state he here 
depicts, without effecting their reformation. The 
inefficacy of an infliction of one kind on the body 
of an individual, is thus employed to exemplify the 
inefficacy of judgments of another on the nation. 
It is not a simile, as there is no formal comparison 
of the condition of the individual with that of the 
people ; nor is it a metaphor, as nothing is ascribed 
to the representative person but what is compatible 
with his nature. 

In the expression (chap. i. 22), " Thy silver is be- 
come dross, thy wine mixed with water," silver cor- 
roded or converted into dross, and wine diluted with 
water, are used to represent their resembling deteriora- 
tion or worthlessness as his professed people. Though 
the things themselves have no resemblance in kind, 
there is a striking similitude between such a depra- 
vation of the most valuable treasure and choicest 
luxury the people possessed, and the emptiness and 
debasement of their nominal obedience. It is not a 
simile, as there is no formal comparison of their 
state to corroded silver and watered wine. Nor is 
it a metaphor, as nothing is affirmed of the silver 
and wine but what may be literally true of them ; 



70 THE HYPOOATASTASIS. 

but those objects, made valueless by processes of 
which they are susceptible, are substituted in their 
place as his people, to represent how depraved and 
worthless they had become. 

Ways and paths are used by the figure as a sub- 
stitute for modes of life or actions prescribed' by 
law ; as (Is. ii. 3), " And many people shall go and 
say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of 
the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he 
will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his 
paths." They are not literal highways which God 
is to teach those who are to go in them. To ascribe 
such a sense to the term were absurd. Nor are they 
material paths in which they are to walk ; but ways 
and paths, which are to the body what laws are to 
the mind, are employed on account of that resem- 
blance, to denote the instructions and commands 
which God is then to communicate for their guid- 
ance ; and that accordingly which the people 
propose to do is, not to walk in a literal path from 
one place to another, but to pursue the course of 
conduct which God enjoins on them. Light is used 
by the figure in the same manner (chap. ii. 5) : " O 
house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the 
light of the Lord." This is not a metaphor ; as 
walking in a light flashed from the divine presence, 
as from the pillar of fire which illuminated the 



THE HTPOCATASTASIS. 71 

camp of the Israelites in the desert, was not incom- 
patible with their nature ; but as walking is to the 
body what progress in thought is to the soul, and as 
light is to the eye what knowledge is to the mind, 
walking in a light emanating from Jehovah is put 
for acting conformably to the teachings which he 
is to communicate for their guidance. 

God is exhibited by the figure as having a human 
form, and exerting acts that are proper to man ; as 
extending the hand, lifting up a standard, smiting 
with a sword, weighing in scales, and measuring 
with a span. Thus (Is. v. 25), " Therefore is the 
anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and 
he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and 
hath smitten them" Stretching forth the hand, and 
smiting them, were not the acts he had really 
exerted, but they are put for the measures of his 
providence, by which the evils they had suffered 
were inflicted on them. They are not to be considered 
as used by a metaphor, for though they are not 
proper to God as a spirit, they are appropriate to 
him in the shape he has assumed in the visible 
revelations he has made of himself. In his imme- 
diate communications with men he has usually 
appeared in a human form, and the acts he has 
exerted were such as are proper to that nature. 
Thus it was in that form that he revealed himself 



72 THE IIYPOCATASTASIS. 

to the first pair in Eden ; as is seen from his audibly 
blessing them, and giving them a law, their hearing 
his footsteps as he approached them after their fall, 
and his discourse with them on sentencing them for 
their transgression. He appeared in that shape also 
to Abraham, to Moses, to Joshua, to Manoah, to 
David, to Isaiah, to Ezekiel, to Daniel, and to John, 
and probably to the other prophets ; and it is 
because of his revealing himself in that form, doubt- 
less, that he is exhibited as exerting those and other 
similar acts. It is suitable, therefore, to regard them 
as proper to Jehovah, the Logos and Revealer, who 
is the person to whom those and other acts exerted 
towards the Hebrews are ascribed; and who at 
length assumed our nature, and having ascended 
the throne of the universe, is in fact now exerting, 
and is hereafter to exert in it, many of the identical 
agencies that are ascribed to him in the prophets by 
the figure. 

It is employed again (Is. v. 26), in the expres- 
sions, " And he will lift up an ensign to the na- 
tions from far, and will hiss unto them from the 
end of the earth ; and they shall come with speed 
swiftly." Lifting an ensign or standard, and hissing, 
are put for providential acts, by which the nations 
were to be induced to invade Palestine. Means of 
a different kind were to be as efficacious for the 



THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 73 

purpose, as a call by his voice, and were to make 
the place where they were to assemble as well 
known as though it were indicated by a standard 
that could be seen from their several stations. 
Stretching out the hand, and setting up a signal, 
are used in a similar manner (Is. xi. 11, 12). Hissing 
is employed by the figure (Is. vii. 18, 19) to repre- 
sent the means by which the fly and bee were to 
be prompted to repair from Egypt and Assyria to 
Palestine. 

Using the hand in meting, measuring, and other 
acts, is employed in one of the sublimest passages 
of Isaiah, to indicate God's omnipotence, the abso- 
luteness of his dominion, and the nothingness, com- 
pared to him, of his works : " Who hath measured 
the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted 
out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust 
of the earth in a measure, and weighed the moun- 
tains in scales, and the hills in a balance ? Who 
hath directed the Spirit of the Lord ; or, being his 
counsellor, hath taught him? With whom took he 
counsel, and who instructed him and taught him in 
the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, 
and showed to him the way of understanding ? Be- 
hold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are 
counted as the small dust of the balance ; behold, 
he taketh up the isles as a very little thing, and 

4 



74: THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 

Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts 
thereof sufficient for a burnt offering " (Is. xl. 12- 
16). These great acts — measuring the waters in the 
hand, spanning the heavens, weighing the moun- 
tains, comprising the dust of the earth in a measure, 
and lifting the isles as a very little thing — are thus 
taken as appropriate to, and natural criteria of 
Deity; and the question is on that ground asked, 
"Who has exerted them, that he should be likened to 
Jehovah, and be made an object of homage instead 
of him? "All nations before him are as nothing, 
and they are counted to him less than nothing, 
and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God, or 
what likeness will ye compare unto him?" (v. 17, 18). 
These acts are all thus in effect ascribed to him, and 
are employed to represent acts that bespeak his 
infinite power and dominion, and demonstrate his 
deity. And with what beauty the figure accom- 
plishes its object? By what other expedient could 
so sublime an illustration be made, in so few words, 
of the grandeur of his perfections, and the subordi- 
nation to him of all other existences ? 

There is a grand example of the figure (Ezek. xxxii. 
7, 8), in which acts of the Almighty towards the 
heavenly orbs are employed to represent the 
judgments he was to inflict on the monarch and 
princes of Egypt. After announcing that Pharaoh 



THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 75 

should be taken and slain, the prediction pro- 
ceeds : 

" And when I quench thee I will cover the heavens, 

And I will cause the stars thereof to be black ; 

I will cover the sun with a cloud, 

And the moon shall not give her light 

All the shining lights of the heavens 

I will clothe with black over thee, 

And I will set darkness upon thy land, 

Saith the Lord Jehovah." 

As in announcing that he would put out or 
quench Pharaoh, he treats him as though he were a 
light, or luminary — the sun, moon, and stars, which 
he threatens to cover and intercept from giving 
light, represent the heir of the throne, and other 
princes of his family. And this is in accordance 
with the method of representation employed by the 
Egyptians themselves, who used the sun as a hiero- 
glyph of the monarch ; its course through the 
heavens to represent his reign ; and its descent 
below the horizon to denote his departure to the 
other world. The total interception of light from 
the other luminaries would thence naturally denote 
the deprivation of the royal line of its kingly and 
princely power, and exclusion from official functions. 
The Egyptians would accordingly have regarded 
the prediction as indicating, that on the fall of 



76 THE HTPOCATASTASIS. 

Pharaoh, his heir was to be excluded from the 
throne, and his family divested of all authority. As 
the representative acts were acts of God, those 
which they represent were to be exerted by him, 
and were the acts or measures of his providence, by 
which, on the death of Pharaoh, his heir was to be 
stripped of his royalty, and his princes of their 
nobility, and reduced to the condition of captives or 
subjects. 

The growths of the earth — shrubs, trees, thickets, 
and forests — are used by the figure to represent 
men, armies, and nations ; and the felling and burn- 
ing of the one employed to denote the slaughter and 
extermination of the other. Tims (Is. x. 17-19) the 
briers, thorns, fruitful fields, and forests of Assyria, 
are used as representatives of the Assyrian 
monarch's subjects of different ranks ; and the 
burning of the one is put for the destruction of the 
other : 
" And the Light of Israel shall become a fire, 

And his Holy One a flame ; 

And he shall burn and consume his thorn 

And his brier in one day, 

Even the glory of his forest and his fruitful field ; 

From the soul even to the flesh shall he consume, 

And it shall be like the wasting away of a sick man 

And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, 

That a child may write them." 



THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 77 

God being thus first elliptically denominated the 
Light of Israel, and then, by a full metaphor, a fire 
and a flame, that is to burn and consume the thorn 
and brier, the forest and fruitful field of the king of 
Assyria are then put for his subjects, and the trees 
that survive the burning for the small part of his 
people that were to escape the slaughter. 

In like manner (Is. xxxvii. 21-24), the king of 
Assyria, in boasting of his conquest of Judea, and 
threatening the destruction of the rulers and people, 
puts the sides of Lebanon for the most conspicuous 
and commanding places, and its choicest trees and 
most inaccessible forests for the Jewish princes and 
people : 

"Against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, 
And lifted up thine eyes on high ? 
Against the Holy One of Israel ! 
By thy messengers 

Thou hast reproached Jehovah, and said : 
By the multitude of my chariots 
Have I ascended the height of the mountains, 
The sides of Lebanon ; 
And I will cut down his tallest cedars, 
His choicest fir trees ; 

And I will penetrate into his extreme retreats, 
His richest forests." 

And. finally, God, in foreshowing (Is. x. 28-33) 



78 THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 

the destruction of the army of Sennacherib, in his 
attempt to conquer Judea, employs the thickets and 
forests of Lebanon as representatives of his troops. 
The rapid advance of the Assyrian monarch and 
army in entering Judea is first described : 

" He is come to Aiath, he hath passed to Migron, 
At Michmas he will deposit his baggage ; 
They have passed the strait, 
Geba is their lodging for the night ; 
Ramah is frightened, Gibeah of Saul fleeth. 
Cry aloud with thy voice, O daughter of Gallim ; 
Hearken unto her, Laish ; answer her, Anathoth : 
Madmenah wanders, 
The inhabitants of Geba flee amain ; 
Yet this day shall he abide in Nob ; 
He shall shake his hand against the mount 
Of the daughter of Zion, 
Against the hill of Jerusalem." 

Then the act of God in destroying them is 
exhibited by a stroke that lops the lofty trees, and 
fells the forests of Lebanon : 

" Behold, Jehovah, the Lord of hosts, 
Shall lop the flourishing branch with a dreadful crash, 
And the high of stature shall be cut down ; 
And the lofty shall be brought low ; 
And he shall hew the thickets of the forest with iron ; 
And Lebanon shall fall with a mighty stroke !" 



THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 79 

What othei figures are there in the language of 
men that approach these in appropriateness, vast- 
ness, and grandeur % 

The infliction of destroying judgments on men is 
represented by presenting to them a cup of wine, in 
which drugs producing madness are mixed, and 
causing them to drink it : . " For in the hand of the 
Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red, and it is 
full of mixture, and he poureth out of the same; 
but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth 
shall wring out and drink " (Ps. lxxv. 8). The 
people of Jerusalem are exhibited as having drunk 
of that cup, and are called to rouse themselves from 
the stupefaction it had occasioned : " Awake, 
awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at 
the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury ! Thou 
hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling 
wrung out. There is none to guide her among all 
the sons she hath brought forth ; neither that taketh 
her by the hand of all the sons she hath brought up. 
These two things are come upon thee ; who shall 
be sorry for thee ?— desolation, and destruction, and 
the famine, and the sword : by whom shall I com- 
fort thee ? Thy sons have fainted ; they lie at the 
head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net ; they 
are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thy 
God. Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted and 



80 THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 

drunken, out not with wine. Thus saith thy Lord 
the Lord, and thy God, that pleadeth the cause of 
his people, Behold, I have taken out of thy hand 
the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of my 
fury ; thou shalt no more drink it again ; but I will 
put it into the hand of them that afflict thee " (Is. 
li. 17-23). The wine of the cup of his fury is thus 
explained as denoting, not wine, but the fatal judg- 
ments with which they had been smitten — desola- 
tion, destruction, famine, and sword — that had 
reduced them to a condition of helplessness and 
degradation like that of a person who is intoxicated ; 
and their being compelled to drink it to the dregs, 
their being subjected to those evils in their most 
violent and awful forms. This imagery is em- 
ployed by Jeremiah, also, to represent the destruc- 
tion which was to be inflicted on the Jews, and the 
nations that had made war on them, by the sword 
of Nebuchadnezzar ; and finally the overthrow, by 
similar means, of Babylon (chap. xxv. 15-33). 

Being yoked, like an animal that is made to 
draw, is put for subjection to the dominion or rule 
of another ; and being freed from a yoke and 
burden, for release from subjection or bondage : 
" Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with 
joyfulness and with gladness of heart, for the 
abundance of all things, therefore shalt thou serve 



THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 81 

thine enemies, which the Lord shall send against 
thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and 
in want of all things ; and he shall put a yoke of 
iron npon thy neck until he have destroyed thee " 
(Deut. xxviii. 47, 48). This is shown,, by the predic- 
tion that follows, to mean their helpless subjection 
to the power of their enemies, and surrendry of all 
the fruits of their toil to their hands. On the other 
hand, their release from the domination of the king 
of Babylon is represented by their extrication from 
his yoke (Is. xiv. 25) : " I will break the Assyrian in 
my land, and upon my mountains tread him under 
foot. Then shall his yoke depart from off them, and 
his burden from off their shoulder." 

Mutilation of the body is employed to represent 
an analogous repression and extermination of dispo- 
sitions of the mind. Thus Christ enjoins : " If thy 
hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off. and cast 
them from thee ; it is better for thee to enter into life 
halt or maimed rather than having two hands or two 
feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine 
eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee ; 
it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, 
rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell 
fire " (Matt, xviii. 8, 9). The literal excision of the 
hand and foot, and plucking out the eye, are plainly 
not the acts that are here enjoined ; as their removal 
4* 



82 THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 

could not free from temptation ; it could only put 
an end to sinning in particular forms; but their 
removal is used to represent the eradication and 
extinction of desires which prompt to sin. And 
what an impressive method of inculcating the neces- 
sity of denying and subduing evil passions and 
affections ! 

The breaking a cord, the bowl or bucket, and the 
wheel at a fountain, by which the water necessary 
to sustain life is obtained, is used to represent the 
failure of the vital organs on which life depends : 
" Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden 
bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the foun- 
tain, or the wheel broken at the cistern ; then shall 
the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit 
shall return unto God who gave it" (Eccles. xii. 6, 7). 

Movements up and down in space are used to 
represent analogous political or moral changes : 
" And the mean man shall be brought low, and the 
great men cast down " (Is. v. 15). Their dejection 
was not from local elevations, but from positions of 
rank, influence, or advantage. In like manner, the 
depression, or direction of the eyes to the ground, is 
used to denote an analogous dejection or humiliation 
of the mind : " And the eyes of the lofty shall be 
cast down" (Is. v. 15). The elevation of God in 
space is employed, on the other hand, to represent 



THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 83 

the more conspicuous manifestation of- his presence 
and perfections, and his higher place in the awe and 
homage of his creatures : " And Jehovah of hosts 
will be exalted in judgment, and the Mighty, the 
Holy One, be sanctified in righteousness " (Is. v. 
16). There is a parallel use of the figure, also 
(Is. ii. 11, 17): "The lofty looks of man shall be 
humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be lowed 
down ; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that 
day. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, 
and the haughtiness of men shall be made low, and 
the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." 

Affections or states of the body, and especially 
of the organs of life and sense, are put for affections 
or states of the mind: " And I heard the voice of 
the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will 
go for us ? And I said, Here am I ; send me. And 
he said, Go, and say to this people, Hear indeed, 
but understand not ; and see indeed, but know not. 
Make the heart of this people fat, and make their 
ears heavy, and close up their eyes, lest they see 
with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and 
understand with their heart, and turn and be 
healed " (Is. vi. 8-10). These organs are used to 
represent the analogous powers of the mind ; and 
the depravation and perversion of the one employed 
to represent the depravation and perversion of the 



THE HYPOCATASTASIS. J? 

other. Prophetically to dull and stupify their*senses 
thus, was to predict that they would be as* issensible 
to the messages of God, from their .unlje^ief and 
impiety, as the blind are insensible to colors, and 
the deaf are to sounds. 

The figure, though sel^^. ; p§ca^&|^^^Si^)ets 
and orators in these bold an'cr im^H^^Rro^ is 
often employed by them : 

"Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see, 
My heart, untravelled, fondly turns to thee ; 
Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain, 
And draffs at each remove a lengthening chain" 

Dragging a chain, that grew longer and heavier as 
he advanced on his journey, is used to signify that 
his regrets increased as the distance became greater 
that separated him from his friend. 



" The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel ; 
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment 




Of each new hatch'd, unfledged comrad^" ? ^ 





Here soul is ufced "fc^elfya&d grappling friends 
to one's self with hook's of -steel, is put for attaching 



THE HTPOCATASTASIS. 



85 






them to one's self i|fltssoIiibl^ ? by the means that 
naturally excite and perpetuate friendship. 



# 



I have touch'd the highest point of all my greatness- ; 
And from that full meridian of my glory 
I haste now to my setting:^ I shall fall 
£dke/* bright exhalation in the evening, 



And no man see me more." 



Shakspeare. 



By an elliptical metaphor, his highest official 
station is called his greatness, as though it 'had^ele- 
vation and breadth, like a triumphal arch ; and his 
touching its uppermost point is put for his reaching 
his jgreates^ power. In like manner, his hasting to 
his setting is put for his loss of office and influence- 

" He rose, 
And, with a seer-like majesty, poured forth 
His holy adoration to the God 
Who o'er time's broken wave had borne his bark 
Safe toward the haven" 

SlGdUENEY. 

Bearing his bark safe over time's broken wave is 
put for guiding and protecting him amidst the dan- 
gers of life. 

"When men. once reaeb their autumn, sickly joys 
Fall off apace, as yellow leaves frpm trees 
At every little breath misfortune blows ; 



86 THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 

Till, left quite naked of their happiness, 
In the chill blasts of winter they expire: 
This is the common lot." 

Young. 

Expiring in the chill blasts of winter, from want 
of protection to the body, is here put for dying 
under storms of mental sorrow, from want of intel- 
lectual or spiritual supports. 

" Examine well 
His milk-white hand. The palm is hardly clean ; 
But here and there an ugly smutch appears. 
Foh ! 't was a bribe that left it. He has touched 
Corruption." 

Cowpek. 

A stain of the hand, by the touch of a polluting 
object, is put for the defilement of the mind by a 
guilty action. 

" Self-flattered, unexperienced, high in hope, 
When young, with sanguine cheer, and streamers gay, 
We cut our cable, launch into the world, 
And fondly dream each wind and star our friend." 

Young. 

Cutting a cable, and launching into the world 
with streamers gay, acts that are peculiar to mari- 



THE HTPOCATASTASIS. 87 

ners, are put for entering on the active pursuits of 
life in a bold, and sanguine expectation of success. 

The figure is very frequently employed in narra- 
tives, letters, and conversation ; and our language 
owes to it many of its most pointed and emphatic 
expressions. 

Thus one who falsely assumes that others, who 
have an interest in the measures he is pursuing, will 
give him their sanction and support, is said to 
reckon without his host. 

A person who gives an exorbitant price for a 
trifle, or labors hard to gain an object that yields 
him. little benefit, is said to jpay dear for his whistle. 

A person who, having engaged in an undertaking 
that proves to be more difficult than he had ex- 
pected, and likely to issue in disaster, regrets that 
he had attempted it, is said to count the cost too 
late. 

Persons who take precautions against a misfor- 
tune after it has befallen them, are said to loch the 
stable after the horse has been stolen. 

"When one's affairs are disastrous, it is said to be 
ebb tide with him/ when he is successful, he is said 
to have a flood tide. 

A man who meets great difficulties and dangers 
in the conduct of an undertaking, especially from 
rivals and antagonists, is said to have a head wind } 



88 THE HTPOCATASTASIS. 

and a tempestuous time; and one who encounters no 
obstacles, but is favored by events in the manage- 
ment of his business, is said to have a clear coast, 
a favoring tide, and a fair wind. 

Those who are sanguine of success, and elated 
with the prospect of happiness, are said to see fair 
weather ahead: while those who are habituallv 
distrustful, and anticipate evil, are said always to 
have a storm brewing, or the future is always dark 
to them. 

"When it is necessary for a person to make a 
skilful and strenuous effort to accomplish an object, 
it is said he must put his best foot foremost. 

When a person has nearly reached the end of 
life, it is said of him : he has nearly got through his 
journey ; he is nearing his port; he is to meet but 
one tempest more. 

A person who is engaged in an undertaking of 
great difficulty and responsibility, is said to have a 
great load to carry ; one whose pursuits involve 
little risk, and require only slight exertion, is said 
to have but a light burden. 

A person who adopts the principles and theories 
of another, and makes them the rule of his conduct, 
is said to sail by that maris chart; to tak.e his lati- 
tude and longitude from him; and to follow his 
reckoning. Thus a late chief magistrate of the 



THE HYPOOATASTASIS. 89 

United States, in announcing that he should adhere 
to the financial policy of the president who pre- 
ceded him, said he " should walk in the footsteps of 
his illustrious predecessor ." 

In all these examples, an act of one kind is used 
in the place of another, and the resemblance that 
subsists between them is not one of nature, but only 
of condition ; such as, ease or difficulty, prosperity 
or adversity ; or of the effects they occasion, such as, 
relief or perplexity, elation or depression, advantage 
or disadvantage. 

What is a hypocatastasis ? How does it differ from a comparison ? 
How from a metaphor ? To which class of figures does it belong ; 
or what is it that is used by the figure — words or things ? Which 
part of the proposition is it in which it is used ? Give an example. 
How is the nominative of the figure, or name of the agent that 
exerts the act it expresses, employed? Are the acts and conditions 
which it ascribes to its agent such as are proper to him or not ? 
Give an example. How does it differ in that respect from the 
metaphor? Give an example. What is the peculiarity of the 
resemblance which it expresses? Is the figure recognised by 
writers on rhetoric ? Does it occur more frequently in the sacred 
than in other writings ? Which is the most impressive and grand 
of the examples quoted in this chapter from the Scriptures ? 

LESSONS. 

In Isaiah x. 1*7-19, quoted above, in which the figure is used, 
there are three nouns and two verbs used metaphorically. Which 
are they ? 



90 THE HTPOCATASTASIS. 

In Isaiah xxxvii. 21-24, quoted above, there is a hypocatastasis 
besides that in the language ascribed to the king of Assyria. There 
is also a metaphor in the interrogatory addressed to him. Point 
them out. 

There are two verbs used metaphorically (Ezek. xxxii. 7, 8), 
quoted above, in which the figure is employed. Which are they ? 

There are two metaphors in the interrogatory (Is. xl. 14). Point 
them out. How many comparisons are there in verses 15-18 that 
follow ? 

The figure is used Psalm i. 1. How many times, and in what 
expressions ? How often is it used in Psalm ii. ? 

Is the figure used in the following passage (Joel iii. 12, 13), which 
relates to the destruction of God's enemies ? If so, how many 
times ? Is there any other figure in it ? If so, what? 

" Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe ; 
Come, get you down, for the vats overflow ; 
For their wickedness is great. 
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision ; 
For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision." 

There are in the following passage six hypocatastases, six nouns 
used metaphorically, and one comparison. Which are they? 

" How should one chase a thousand, 
And two put ten thousand to flight, 
Except their Eock had sold them, 
And the Lord had shut them up ? 
For their rock is not as our Rock ; 
Even our enemies themselves being judgep. 
For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, 
And of the fields of Gomorrah ; 



THE HYPOCATASTASIS. 91 

Their grapes are grapes of gall, 
Their clusters are bitter ; 
Their wine is the poison of dragons, 
And the cruel venom of asps. 

Deut. xxxii. 30-33. 

There are five hypocatastases in the following passage, and one 
adiective, and one verb, used by a metaphor. Which are they? 

For I lift up my hand to heaven, 

And say, I live for ever. 

If I whet my glittering sword, 

And mine hand take hold on judgment, 

I will render vengeance to mine enemies, 

And will reward them that hate me. 

I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, 

And my sword shall devour flesh, 

"With the blood of the slain and of the captives, 

From the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. 

Deut. xxxii. 40-42. 

Let the scholar select two passages from the Scriptures besides 
those quoted, in which the noun path or way is used by the figure. 

Let the scholar cite two passages in which a cup is used by the 
figure. 

Let two be cited in which yoke is used by it. 

Let several be cited in which burden is used by it. 

Let several be cited in which light is used by it. 

Let the scholar cite an example of the figure used in conversa- 
tion, or aphorisms. 

Let the scholar form an expression in which it is employed ; as 
it may be said of a person whose style has great defects, his land- 
scape always has sloughs or swamps in it. If he is extravagant in 



92 THE HTPOCATASTASIS. 

his terms and descriptions, he uses too much paint. If he is negli- 
gent in his expressions, the figures in his pictures are always slip- 
shod, or have lost the buttons from their coats. If he is over 
precise and trim, the animals in his paintings always look as 
though they had just been curried. If he is accustomed to over 
estimate and over praise what belongs to himself, the insects that 
live on his flowers are always employed in gathering honey; the 
songs he hears carolled in his garden are all the songs of the night- 
ingale ; and the fruits he gathers in his orchard are always nec- 
tarines, oranges, and pine-apples. 

It will be of service to collect the most beautiful and striking 
forms of the figure in the Scriptures, the poets, the orators, and in 
conversation, and to learn to use it by tracing the forms in which 
it may be employed, and indicating the class of analogies which it 
is its office to express. 



THE APOSTROPHE. 93 



CHAPTER YIIL 



THE APOSTROPHE 



An Apostrophe is a direct address, in a speech, 
argument, narrative, or prediction, to a person or 
object that is the subject of discourse; or to one 
who hears, and is to form a judgment respecting it: 
as when an advocate in a plea suspends his narra- 
tive or argument, and makes an appeal to the judge 
in respect to the character of the facts that are 
under investigation, or the principles on which the 
validity of the evidence respecting them is to be 
determined ; or when an orator, in depicting the life 
of some one who has departed, arrests the story, and 
addresses himself directly to the dead, as though he 
were present, and aware of what is taking place. 

Thus Isaiah, in announcing the visible advent of 
the Messiah, the earthquake with which the globe 
is then to be shaken, and the ruin in which all the 
objects of the vain confidence of the Israelites are tc 



94: THE APOSTROPHE. 

be involved, arrests the prediction, and, in a direct 
address, summons them immediately to flee to the 
dens and caverns, and hide themselves, as though 
the lightnings of his presence were about to flash on 
their vision : " Go ye into the rock, and hide thee in 
the dust from before the terror of Jehovah, and from 
the glory of his majesty" (chap. ii. 10). 

In like manner, in the allegory (Is. v. 1-7) betwixt 
the description of the vineyard and the prediction 
of its destruction, there is a direct address to the 
people of Jerusalem and Judah, whom the allegory 
represents : " And now, O inhabitant of Jerusalem, 
and man of Judah, j udge, I pray you, between me 
and my vineyard. What could have been done 
more to my vineyard that I have not done unto it ? 
Why when I expected that it should bring forth 
grapes, brought it forth wild grapes ? But come 
now, and I will make known unto you what I 
purpose to do to my vineyard." 

The figure is used in a bold and impressive form 
(Is. x. 21-23), in announcing the destroying judg- 
ments with which the Israelites were to be smitten : 
" A remnant shall return, a remnant of Jacob, to 
God Almighty. For though thy people, O Israel, 
shall be like the sand of the sea, a remnant, a rem- 
nant of them shall return. A consumption is 
decreed overflowing in righteousness. For the 



the "apostrophe. 95 

consumption decreed, the Lord Jehovah of hosts 
will make in all the earth." And again, in verses 
24-26, that follow : " Nevertheless, thns saith the 
Lord God of hosts, O my people, inhabiting Zion, 
be not afraid of the Assyrian. He shall smite 
thee with the rod, and shall lift up his staff upon 
thee in the way of Egypt. For yet a little while, 
and wrath is at end ; and my anger to their destruc- 
tion. And Jehovah of hosts shall raise up against 
him a scourge, like the smiting of Midian at the 
rock Oreb, and his rod over the sea." 

Christ's address to Jerusalem — put by metonymy 
for the population — is an example of the figure : 
" O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the 
prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, 
how often would I have gathered thy children 
together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens 
under her wings, and ye would not; behold, your 
house is left unto you desolate" (Matt, xxiii. 37, 
38). 

Inanimate objects, also, are often apostrophized. 
There are several examples of that form of the 
figure in Isaiah xiv. 8-20. The fir-trees and cedars 
are exhibited as addressing the king of Babylon : 
" Even the fir-trees rejoice over thee, and the cedars 
of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down no 
feller is come up against us" On his entrance intc 



96 THE APOSTROPHE. 

the world of the dead, the spirits of the chiefs and 
kings of the earth are represented as awaiting him : 
" All they shall speak and say unto him, Art thou 
also become weak as we f Art thou become like unto 
us f Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, the 
noise of thy viols. The worm is spread under thee, 
and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen 
from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning ! How 
art thou cut down which didst weaken the nations!" 
Immaterial things are often apostrophized ; and 
in those instances the objects addressed are also 
treated according to their proper nature. Thus 
Cowper : 

" Domestic happiness ! thou only bliss 
Of Paradise that has survived the fall ! 
Though few now taste thee unimpaired and pure, 
Or tasting long enjoy thee ; too infirm, 
Or too incautious, to preserve thy sweets 
Unmixed with drops of bitter, which neglect 
Or temper shed into thy crystal cup. 
Thou art the nurse of virtue ; in thine arms 
She smiles, appearing, as in truth she is, 
Heaven-born, and destined to the skies again." 

It is happiness that is addressed and described 
throughout, and as happiness, though taste, tasting, 
sweets, and nurse, are used by a metaphor ; while 



THE APOSTROPHE. 97 

shedding drops of hitter into her crystal cup is used, 
by a hypocatastasis, for an analogous act by which 
happiness is impaired by neglect, ill temper or 
other means. So music also : 

" O music ! thy celestial claim 
Is still resistless, still the same 

And faithful as the mighty sea 
To the pale star that o'er its realms presides, 
The spell-bound tides 

Of human passion rise and fall with thee." 

Moore. 

Here music is addressed simply as music, not as 
a person ; and the sensibility of the passions to its 
influence is compared to that of the ocean to the 
moon, by which its tides are raised and depressed. 

"O memory ! thou fond deceiver, 
Still importunate and vain ; 
To former joys recurring ever, 

And turning all the past to pain ; 
Thou like the world, the oppressed oppressing, 

Thy smiles increase the wretch's woe, 
And he who wants each other blessing, 
In thee must ever find a foe." 

Goldsmith. 

All that is here affirmed is appropriate to 
5 



98 THE APOSTROPHE. 

memory, considered as a faculty or power, not as a 
person. Deceiver and smiles are used by a meta- 
phor ; and its influence on the wretched is com- 
pared to that of the world, which tramples down 
those who are already the victims of misfor- 
tune. 

The figure is thus a direct address, in a speech or 
narrative, to a person or object present or absent, 
for the purpose of a more emphatic description, or a 
bolder presentation of a subject. The agency, or 
condition, ascribed to the person or object ad- 
dressed, is such as is suitable to its nature. The 
acts ascribed to the people of Jerusalem are such as 
they had exerted. The interrogatories and exclama- 
tions addressed by the spirits in Hades to the king 
of Babylon are in accordance with his history and 
condition. And so of happiness, of music, and of 
light, in the passage quoted on the next page ; and 
of night on the page following that. 

The figure gives, by the dramatic form which it 
employs, far greater force and emphasis to the 
thoughts which it utters, and the facts which it 
describes. The agents or objects apostrophized are 
addressed as though in the presence of the speaker, 
and listening to the narrative of their lives, the 
description of their character, or the laments that 
are uttered over them. The figure is often used by 



THE APOSTROPHE. 99 

the poets and orators. Thus Milton's apostrophe to 

light is eminently beautiful : 

" Hail, holy light ! offspring of heaven, first-born, 

Or of the eternal, co-eternal beam, 

May I express thee unblam'd, since God is light, 

And never but in unapproached light 

Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee ! 

Bright effluence of bright essence increate ! 

Or hear'st thou rather, pure etherial stream, 

Whose fountain who can tell ? Before the sun, 

Before the heavens, thou wert ; and at the voice 

Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest 

The rising world of waters, dark and deep, 

"Won from the void and formless infinite. 

Thee I revisit now with bolder wing, 

Escaped the stygian pool, though long detained 

In that obscure sojourn ; while in my flight, 

Through utter and through middle darkness borne, 

With other notes than to the Orphean lyre, 

I sang of Chaos and eternal Night. 

Taught by the heavenly muse to venture down 

The dark descent, and up to reascend, 

Through hard and rare ; thee I revisit safe, 

And feel thy sovran vital lamp. But thou 

Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain 

To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn ; 

So thick a drop serene hath quenched, their orbs, 

Or dim suffusion veil'd." 

Paradise Lost, b. iii 



100 THE APOSTROPIIE. 

Young apostrophizes night : 

"0 majestic night ! 

Nature's great ancestor ! Day's elder born ! 

And fated to survive the transient sun ! 

By mortals and immortals seen with awe ! 

A starry crown thy raven brow adorns ; 

An azure zone thy waist ; clouds in heaven's loom, 

Wrought through varieties of shape and shade, 

In ample folds of drapery divine, 

Thy flowing mantle form, and heaven throughout 

Voluminously pour thy pompous train." 

Young. 

Byron apostrophizes the ocean thus : 

" Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form 
Glasses itself in tempests ! In all time, 
Calm or convulsed, in breeze, in gale, or storm, 
Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime 
Dark heaving ; boundless, endless, and sublime ! 
The image of eternity ! the throne 
Of the invisible !" 

Thomson addresses the shades and thickets by the 
figure : 

" Welcome, ye shades ! ye bowery thickets, hail ! 
Ye lofty pines ! ye venerable oaks ! 
Ye ashes wild resounding o'er the steep ! 
Delicious is your shelter to the soul 



THE APOSTROPHE. 



lOf 



As to the hunted hart the sallying spring, 

Or stream full flowing, that his swelling sides 

Laves, as he floats along the herbag'd brink. 

Cool through the nerves your pleasing comfort glides ; 

The heart beats glad, the fresh expanded eye 

And ear resume their watch ; the sinews knit ; 

And life shoots swift through all the lighten'd limbs." 

Young's address to the lilies is a fine example of 
the figure : 

" Queen lilies ! and ye painted populace 
Who dwell in fields, and lead ambrosial lives ! 
In morn and evening dew your beauties bathe, 
And drink the sun, which gives your cheeks to glow, 
And outblush — mine excepted — every fair ; 
You gladlier grew, ambitious of her hand, 
Which often cropt your odors, incense meet 
To thought so pure. Ye lovely fugitives ! 
Coeval race with man ; for man you smile ; 
Why not smile at him too ? yOu share indeed 
His sudden pass, but not his constant pain." 

The figure differs from the metaphor. 1. In that 
it is an address to the person or object which is its 
subject. The metaphor is not an address to its 
subject, but affirms something respecting it. 2. 
That which the apostrophe declares of its subject is 
in harmony with its nature, and literally true of it ; 



f02 



THE APOSTROPHE. 



that which the metaphor ascribes to its subject is 
not literally true, but only resembles that which is 
literally true of it. 

The figure thus admits of a bold and full por- 
traiture of the persons or objects addressed, in a 
highly poetic form, employing the metaphor, com- 
parison, metonymy, hyperbole, and hypocatastasis 
as its auxiliaries, as freely as though the discourse 
were a description or narrative. 

What is an apostrophe? Does it admit a description of the 
person or object addressed ? Are the properties and acts it 
ascribes to its subjects such as accord with their nature? How- 
does it differ from the metaphor ? What is its influence on a com- 
position ? 

Where does the pause fall in the lines from Milton, "Hail, 
holy light, offspring of heaven first-born"? Which of the lines 
commence with a trochee ? Where does the caesura fall in Young's 
lines, " Queen lilies I and ye painted populace " ? 

LESSONS. 

There are in the first twelve lines of Milton's apostrophe to 
light, eight metaphors, and one comparison. Which are they? 

There are in the other lines several metaphors. Which are 
they? 

There are in Young's apostrophe to night, fourteen metaphors, 
counting such expressions as elder-born, starry-crown, and raven- 
brow as one. Point them out. 

Let the scholar give an example of the figure from the Scrip- 
tures. Let one be given from a poet. 



THE PERSONIFICATION. 103 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE PERSONIFICATION. 

The Prosopopoeia, or Personification, is an ascrip- 
tion of intelligence to an impersonal thing, material 
or mental, by addressing it as though it had the 
organs of hearing, sight, or motion ; or ascribing to 
it the passions and actions of men. Thus Moses, in 
his prophetic song to the congregation of Israel 
(Deut. xxxii. 1-43), summoned the heavens and the 
earth to listen to his words : 

" Give ear, ye heavens, and I will speak ; 
And hear, earth, the words of my mouth. 
My doctrine shall drop as the rain ; 
My speech shall distil as the dew ; 
As the small rain upon the tender herb, 
And as the showers upon the grass ; 
Because I will publish the name of the Lord, 
Ascribe ye greatness unto our God." 



104 THE PERSONIFICATION. 

The heavens and earth are thus addressed as 
though they had the organ of hearing, were con- 
sciously present at the utterance of the song, and 
witnesses of its solemn recitals, and its prophetic 
warnings and announcements. 

It is used in the same form by Isaiah, in the 
introduction of his prophecy (chap. i. 1) ; 

" Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth ; 
For it is Jehovah that speaketh." 

The mountains are summoned by it (Micah vi. 
2) to witness the controversy of God with his 
people : 

" Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, 
And ye strong foundations of the earth ; 
For the Lord hath a controversy with his people, 
And he will plead with Israel." 

The heavens are called by Jeremiah (chap. ii. 
12, 13) to contemplate the apostasy of the Israelites, 
with the amazement and fear with which it was 
suited to impress beholders : 

" Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, 
And be horribly afraid. 
Be ye very desolate, saith the Lord, 
For my people have committed two evils : 



THE PERSONIFICATION. 105 

They have forsaken me, 

The fountain of living waters ; 

And hewed them out cisterns, 

Broken cisterns, that can hold no water." 

He calls the earth to be witness of the prophetic 
denunciation he uttered respecting Coniah (chap, 
xxii. 29, 30) : 

" O earth, earth, earth, 
Hear the word of the Lord. 
Thus saith the Lord : 
Write ye this man childless, 
A man that shall not prosper in his days ; 
For no man of his seed shall prosper, 
Sitting upon the throne of David, 
And ruling any more in Judah." 

Isaiah calls the heavens and earth, the mountains 
and forests, to celebrate with songs and joy the 
redemption of Jacob (chap. xliv. 23) ; 

" Sing, O ye heavens, for Jehovah hath effected it ; 
Utter a joyful sound, O ye depths of the earth ; 
Burst forth into song, ye mountains ! 
Thou forest, and every tree therein ! 
For Jehovah hath redeemed Jacob ; 
And will be glorified in Israel." 
5* 



106 THE PERSONIFICATION. 

This is one of the most beautiful examples of the 
figure in the sacred writings, and has no equal in 
the uninspired poets. His personification of Jeru- 
salem is eminently lofty and impressive (chap, lii, 
1,9): 
" Awake, awake, be clothed with thy strength, Zion ; 

Clothe thyself with thy glorious garments, 

Jerusalem, thou holy city ! 

For no more shall enter into thee 

The uncircumcised and polluted." 

"Burst forth into joy, shout together, 
Ye ruins of Jerusalem ! 
For Jehovah hath comforted his people ; 
He hath redeemed Israel ! " 

In all these examples, the objects personified are 
addressed. There are others in which the affections 
and actions of intelligent beings are ascribed to 
them. Thus, in the apostrophe to the king of 
Babylon (Isaiah xiy. 7, 8) : 

" The whole earth is at rest ; is quiet ; 
They burst forth into singing ; 
Even the fir-trees rejoice with respect to thee, 
The cedars of Lebanon, saying — 
Now that thou art lain down, 
The feller shall not come up against us." 

This is not a metaphor, as it is a law of that figure 



THE PERSONIFICATION. 107 

that the agents or objects to which it is applied, are 
capable of acts or appearances that are, in some 
relation, like those which it ascribes to them. But 
firs and cedars are not competent to anything 
analogous to the acts they are here exhibited as 
exerting. They may present an appearance of 
beauty and cheerfulness that resembles the human 
countenance when exhilarated with joy, but they 
are not capable of any appearance or movement 
that answers in any degree to an address to an 
intelligent being in the realms of the dead. 
It is employed again in the following yerse : 

" Hades from beneath is excited, because of thee, 
To meet thee at thy coming. 
It rouses for thee the mighty dead, 
All the chief ones of the earth. 
It raises from their thrones all the kings of the nations. 1 '' 

Hades, the world of the dead, is not capable of 
acts and conditions that correspond in any man- 
ner to those which are here affirmed of it. It is 
addressed as though it were an intelligent agent, 
and the keeper of the dead ; and it is in that cha- 
racter that they are ascribed to it. 

The figure is thus one of the most lofty and beau- 
tiful that the fancy employs, and invests the events 
it is used to exemplify and adorn with extraordinary 



108 THE PERSONIFICATION. 

dignity and splendor. To exhibit them as of such 
significance that the great objects of the material 
world should be roused to consciousness at their 
presence, and touched with joy or sorrow, and burst 
into songs or lamentations at their o^u^ence, is to 
exalt and aggrandize them in the highest degree of 
which the imagination is capable. 

An elliptical metaphor, by which a city or 
country is exhibited as a person, and the affections, 
acts, and conditions of a person ascribed to it, is 
sometimes treated by writers as a personification. 
As Lam. i. 7, 8 : 

" Jerusalem remembered, in the days of her affliction and 
of her miseries, all her pleasant things that she had in the days 
of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and 
none did help her : the adversaries saw her, and did mock 
at her Sabbaths. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned ; there- 
fore she is removed ; all that honored her despise her ; 
because they have seen her nakedness; yea, she sigheth 
and turneth backward." 

The city is not here addressed as a material struc- 
ture, as it would have been had it been personified ; 
but is used first by metonymy for its population, and 
is in that relation spoken of by an elliptical meta- 
phor, as though a real woman. 

Sometimes an elliptical metaphor, by which the 
population of a city or country are exhibited as an 



THE PERSONIFICATION. 109 

individual, is mistaken for a personification. As 
Lam. iv. 21, 22 : 

" Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, that dwellest 
in the land of Uz ; the cup also shall pass through unto 
thee ; thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked. 
The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, daugh- 
ter of £ion : he will no more carry thee away into captivity ; 
he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will 
discover thy sins." 

This is not a personification, as persons cannot be 
personified, but is a substitution of an individual for 
a people ; and is, like the other, a metaphor, with 
an ellipsis of the affirmation, by which, had it 
received the regular form of the figure, the people 
would have been declared to be a woman. 

In many instances, abstract things, such as igno- 
rance and knowledge ; characteristics, such as truth, 
wisdom, virtue, patience, faith ; seasons, as evening, 
morning, day, spring, winter, and others of the kind, 
are personified by the ascription to them of acts that 
are peculiar to persons. Thus Wisdom is personified 
by Solomon : 

"Wisdom hath builded her house; she hath hewn out 
her seven pillars ; she hath killed her beasts ; she hath 
mingled her wine ; she hath also furnished her table ; she 



110 THE PERSONIFICATION. 

hath sent forth her maidens ; she crieth upon the highest 
places of the city, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither ; 
as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, 
Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine I have min- 
gled. Forsake the foolish, and live ; and go in the way of 
understanding" (chap. ix. 1-6). 

"Wisdom is as clearly personified by the ascription 
to her of these acts, which are peculiar to human 
beings, as she would have been had she been 
directly addressed and solicited to build her house, 
prepare her feast, and invite her guests. They are 
not ascribed to her by a metaphor, inasmuch as she 
is not an agent, and never exercises acts of any- 
kind, nor produces effects that resemble the actions 
here affirmed of her. The acts, instead of meta- 
phorical, are proper to her considered as a person, 
and are, in fact, used, by a hypocatastasis, for the 
analogous acts of providing the gifts of knowledge 
for men, and alluring them freely to accept them. 

Knowledge is, in like manner, personified by 
Gray in the following lines : 

" But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page, 
Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll." 

To unroll a volume, rich with the spoils of time, 
to the eyes of men, is an act appropriate only to an 



THE PERSONIFICATION. Ill 

intelligent being. In representing it as an act 
which it is the business of knowledge to exert, 
knowledge is exhibited as a person. 

Ambition is personified in the following passage : 

" O dire Ambition ! what infernal power 
Unchained thee from thy native depth of hell, 
To stalk the earth with thy destructive train : 
Murder and lust ! to waste domestic peace 
And every heartfelt joy ?" 

Brown. 

Being unchained, stalking the earth with a train, 
and wasting domestic peace and joy, are appropriate 
only to human beings. 

Young's harangue to Death is a lofty example of 
the figure : 

" Death ! great proprietor of all ! 't is thine 
To tread out empire, and to quench the stars. 
Amid such mighty plunder, why exhaust 
Thy partial quiver on a mark so mean ? 
Why thy peculiar rancour wreak'd on me ? 
Insatiate archer ! could not one suffice ? 
Thy shaft flew thrice, and thrice my peace was slain ; 
And thrice, e'er thrice yon moon had filled her horn !" 

The personification is thus an ascription of affec- 
tions or acts to impersonal things, material and 



112 THE PERSONIFICATION. 

mental, of which they neither are capable nor 
exhibit any likeness, in their natural conditions or 
operations ; in order to indicate, in an emphatic and 
lofty form, the manner in which the events it is 
employed to illustrate, arrest the attention of men, 
and impress them with awe, grief, or terror, or raise 
them to exhilaration and joy. The metaphor, on 
the other hand, ascribes to agents and objects 
natures, acts, or conditions, that, though not really 
proper to them, yet resemble those of which they 
are the agents or subjects ; while the apostrophe 
ascribes to agents or objects acts, conditions, or 
affections that are proper to them. 

There are instances in which the personification 
may be mistaken for the apostrophe ; as in each the 
objects of the figure are directly addressed. There 
are instances of the apostrophe also which may be 
mistaken for personification, from the use of the 
personal pronouns, as in Young's address to Night, 
and Milton's to Light. In these forms of the figure, 
however, the description of the objects addressed is 
in accordance with their nature, as night, light, 
music, happiness, memory ; not as intelligent agents : 
while in the personification, the attributes and acts 
ascribed to the objects addressed, are such as are 
peculiar to persons. 

In the following passage, however, there is 



THE PEKSOOTFICATION. 113 

a mixture of the personification and the apo- 
strophe : 

" Contentment ! rosy-dimpled mg^ ! 
Thou brightest daug-hter of the sky ! 
Why dost thou to the hut repair, 
And from the gilded palace fly ? 
I 've traced thee on the peasant's cheek ; 
I 've marked thee in the milkmaid's smile ; 
I 've heard thee loudly laugh and speak, 
Amid the sons of want and toil ; 
Yet, in the circles of the great, 
Where fortune's gifts are all combined, 
I 've sought thee early, sought thee late, 
And ne'er thy lovely form could find. 
Since then from wealth and pomp you flee, 
I ask but competence and thee." 

Lady Manners. 



In the first four, the seventh, the twelfth, and the 
thirteenth lines, Contentment is treated as a person ; 
in the fifth and sixth, as a mental state or feeling 
revealing itself through the countenance. 



What is personification? How does it differ from the meta- 
phor ? Is it a figure of words, or things ? What rank, in force and 
dignity, does it hold among the figures ? What figure is sometimes 



114 THE PERSONIFICATION. 

erroneously treated as a personification ? What is the difference 
of the figure from the apostrophe ? 

In the quotation on Contentment, there are two hypocatastases, 
and three nouns and one adjective are used metaphorically. "Which 
are they ? 

LESSONS. 

Let the scholar cite an example of the figure from the Scrip- 
tures. 

Let one be cited from the poets. 



THE ALLEGORY. 115 



CHAPTEK X. 



THE ALLEGORY 



The Allegory is the use of intelligences acting in 
one sphere or relation, to exemplify and illustrate 
their own or the agencies of others in another ; or 
the use of unintelligent agents or objects in a 
natural or supposititious relation, to exemplify the 
conduct of men. They are sometimes employed 
together. 

There is a beautiful example of the figure in Isaiah 
(chap. y. 1-7) : 

" Let me sing now a song of my beloved ; 
A song of my beloved, concerning his vineyard : 
My beloved had a vineyard, 
On a high and fruitful hill ; 

And he fenced it round, and he cleared it from the stones, 
And he planted it with the vine of Sorek ; 
And he built a tower in the midst of it, 
And he hewed also a wine-vat therein ; 



116 THE ALLEGORY. 

And he waited for it that it should bring forth grapes : 
But it produced wild grapes. 

" And now, inhabitant of Jerusalem, and man of Judah, 
Judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard : 
What could have been done more to my vineyard 
That I have not done unto it ? 

Why, when I waited for it that it should bring forth grapes, 
Brought it forth wild grapes? 

" But come now, and I will make known unto you 
What I purpose to do to my vineyard : 
Remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured ; 
Destroy its fence, and it shall be trodden down ; 
And I will make it a desolation : 
It shall not be pruned, neither shall it be digged ; 
And there shall come up thorns and briers in it ; 
And I will command the clouds, 
That they rain no rain upon it. 

" For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of 
Israel, 
And the men of Judah his pleasant plant ; 
And he looked for judgment, and behold bloodshed ; 
And for righteousness, and behold a cry." 

It is seen, from the explanation with which the 
allegory closes, that the vineyard is used to repre- 
sent the people of Judea ; the labor of the husband- 



THE ALLEGORY. 117 

man in cultivating it, to denote God's using the 
proper means as their lawgiver and teacher, to lead 
them to yield the fruits of holiness ; its bearing wild 
grapes, to represent their disobedience ; and its 
devastation, to indicate the evils of war and cap- 
tivity to which they were to be subjected in punish- 
ment of their rebellion. All the particulars of the 
description are in accordance with the subject. The 
measures taken by the husbandman to secure good 
grapes were such as were usual with cultivators of 
the vine ; and his disappointment by the growth of 
bad clusters, such as is in fact sometimes expe- 
rienced ; and at the close, the people are indicated 
whom it is employed to represent. 

It is a peculiarity of this allegory, that another 
figure is interposed betwixt its descriptive or his- 
torical and its predictive parts. The allegory is 
comprised in verses 1, 2, 5-7. The intervening 
verses, 3, 4, are an apostrophe to the Israelites, 
asking them what more could have been done to the 
vineyard to cause it to yield good grapes ; and sig- 
nifying that God had, in like manner, used all the 
means that were proper to excite them to yield him 
obedience. The agent in the allegoric sphere re- 
presents the agent in the sphere which the allegory 
represents ; the object of the agency, or labor and 
care in the one, represents the object of the labor 



118 THE ALLEGORY. 

and care in the other ; the fruits or results in the 
one sphere stand for the results in the other ; and 
the destructive measures that followed in the one 
represent the retributive measures in the other. 

In the lxxxth Psalm a vine is used as the repre- 
sentative of the Israelites, and God's agency toward 
it is employed to exemplify his dealings with them : 

" Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt, 
Thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it ; 
Thou preparedst room before it, 
And didst cause it to take deep root* 
And it filled the land. 

The hills were covered with the shadow of it, 
And the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. 
She sent out her boughs unto the sea, 
And her branches unto the river. 

" Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, 
So that all they which pass by the way do pluck her 
The boar out of the wood doth waste it, 
And the wild beast of the field doth devour it. 

" Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts ; 
Look down from heaven, and behold and visit this vine, 
And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, 
And the branch that thou madest strong for thyself. 
It is burnt with fire, it is cut down ; 
They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. 



THE ALLEGORY. 119 

Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, 

Upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for 

thyself; 
So will not we go back from thee. 
Quicken us, and we will call upon thy name ; 
Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts ; 
Cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved." 

That the allegory is representative of the history 
of the Israelites is seen from the expressions that 
introduce and close it : 

" O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou 
Be angry against the prayer of thy people ? 
Thou feedest them with the bread of tears, 
And givest them tears to drink in great measure ; 
Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours, 
And our enemies laugh among themselves. 
Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to 

shine, 
And we shall be saved." 

Then follows the allegory, in which it is stated 
that it is to a branch of the human race, " the son 
of man," not of the vegetable world, that the 
allegory refers ; and the prayer of Israel is repeated 
— " Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, and cause 
thy face to shine, and we shall be saved ;" which 
shows that it is that people whom the vine repre- 



120 THE ALLEGORY. 

sents. The transplanting, accordingly, of the vine 
from Egypt, signifies the transference of the Israel- 
ites from that country to Canaan ; the casting out 
of the heathen to make room for it, the destruction 
and expulsion of the Canaanites, and gift of their 
country to the Hebrews ; the planting of the vine, 
their establishment there as the possessors of the 
territory, and organization as a nation ; its taking 
root, filling the land, covering the hills with its 
shadow, and sending out its branches to the sea on 
the one side and the Euphrates on the other, their 
growth to be a numerous and powerful people, and 
the extension of their territory by fresh conquests ; 
and the breaking of its hedge, and its being wasted 
and devoured by beasts, the invasion and conquest 
of the Israelites, and devastation of their territory. 

The agents in the allegoric sphere stand for 
agents in the real sphere which the allegoric repre- 
sents ; objects of agency in the allegory stand for 
objects of agency in the history which it represents ; 
acts stand for acts ; effects stand for effects ; and the 
destruction of the vine and vineyard, for the 
destruction of the Israelites and desolation of their 
territory. 

The allegory (Ezek. xxxi. 3-17), in which the 
king or dynasty of Assyria is represented by a cedar 
of Lebanon, is of great beauty, and has the pecu- 



THE ALLEGORY. 121 

liarity that metaphors are employed in the descrip- 
tion ; enjoyment, envy, mourning, and fainting, 
being ascribed to the forests and trees that wit- 
nessed its glory and its fall. 

The parable of Jotham (Judges ix. 7-16) differs 
from all others, in exhibiting the trees and plants 
that are used as representatives as intelligent 
agents, or men ; and ascribing to them acts that are 
peculiar to intelligences ; and is a fable rather than 
an allegory : 

" And Jotham went and stood in the top of mount 
Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said, 
Hearken unto me, ye men of, Shechem, that God may 
hearken unto you. The trees went forth on a time to 
anoint a king' over them, and they said unto the olive-tree, 
Reign thou over us. But the olive-tree said unto them, 
Should I leave my fatness wherewith by me they honor God 
and man, and go to be promoted over the trees ? And the 
trees said to the fig-tree, Come thou and reign over us. But 
the fig-tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness 
and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees ? 
Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou and reign over 
us. And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, 
which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over 
the trees ? Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come 
thou and reign over us. And the bramble said unto the 
trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come 

6 



122 THE ALLEGOIIY. 

and put your trust in my shadow ; and if not, let fire come 
out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon. 1 ' 

Here the trees, the vine, and the bramble are 
exhibited as intelligences living in political society, 
and requiring a monarch of their own order to rule 
them. The inquiries of the olive, the fig-tree, and 
the vine, whether they should give up bearing their 
peculiar fruits to reign over the trees, imply that no 
good man could become monarch of the men of 
Shechem without relinquishing all his virtues ; and 
the reply of the bramble implies, that either the 
men of Shechem would be obliged to submit them- 
selves to the lowest degradation under the rule of 
Abimelech, whom the bramble represents ; or else 
they would be subjected to the most cruel tyranny 
and slaughter. 

In Nathan's parable (2 Sam. xii. 1-6), a person in 
one sphere of life is employed to represent a person 
in another. 

The parable of the sower (Matt. xiii. 3-23 ; Luke 
viii. 5-15) is constructed on the principle of the 
allegory; persons, agents," objects, acts, and effects 
in one sphere representing persons, agents, objects, 
acts, and effects in another. The sower represents 
the preacher of the gospel ; the seed the word of 
God; the sowing the seed, the preaching of the word ; 



THE ALLEG0EY. 123 

the different places on which the seed fell, the 
different classes of hearers of the word ; the fowls, 
active agents, the devil ; the want of earth, the heat 
of the sun, and thorns, the various opposing causes 
that prevent the word from remaining and becoming 
a living power in many of the hearers ; and the 
crop of the good ground, the obedience which they 
yield in whom the word produces its proper effect. 

Many of the parables of the ]STew Testament are 
mere comparisons instead of allegories ; such as that 
of the mustard seed : 

*' The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard 
seed, which a man took and sowed in his field ; which 
indeed is the least of all seeds, but when it is grown it is the 
greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds 
of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof." 

Matt. xiii. 31-32; Luke xiii. 18, 19. 

Here is a mere affirmation, that the mustard seed 
presents a likeness to the kingdom of heaven ; and 
the points of resemblance indicated are — 1st, the 
smallness of the mustard seed ; and, 2d, the height 
and strength which the plant attains at its maturity ; 
and the truth taught is, that, like that plant, the 
kingdom of Christ on the earth, though small at its 
institution, will, at its maturity, rise to a great 
size and strength ; or that its smallness and humble- 



124 THE ALLEGORY. 

ness at its beginning were to be no obstacle to its 
ultimately reaching a greatness and beauty suitable 
to its nature. 

The peculiarity of the allegory thus is : 1. That 
agents and objects in one sphere or relation are 
used to represent men in another. 2. The agency 
in the descriptive part is always represented as 
already exerted. 3. The conditions and acts ascribed 
to the representatives are in accordance with their 
nature. A vineyard is cleared of stones, fenced, 
planted with a vine, and furnished with a wine- 
press and a tower ; and on being abandoned because 
of its yielding wild instead of good grapes, is 
divested of its hedge, exposed to the incursion of 
beasts, and overrun with briers and thorns. A cedar 
is planted by water, grows to a great height, extends 
its branches on every side, and becomes conspicuous 
and beautiful ; the birds build in its boughs, and the 
beasts rest in its shade : but when it is delivered to 
the woodman to be cut down, the beasts withdraw 
from its shade, and the birds from its branches ; it 
falls with a crash ; its boughs are broken, and its 
leaves scattered to the winds ; and it lies a deformed 
and worthless ruin. 4. It sometimes uses other 
figures as its auxiliaries in its descriptions. 5. It is 
preceded or followed by an indication of the 
persons whom it is employed to represent. 



THE ALLEGORY. 125 

"What is the allegory ? What is its first characteristic ? What 
is its second ? What is its third ? What is its fourth ? What is its 
fifth ? What are the representatives in the allegory Isaiah v. l-*7 ? 
Answer: The beloved, the owner and cultivator of the vineyard; 
the vineyard itself, with its wine-press, tower, and hedge; the 
vine ; the wild grapes ; the wild beasts that plucked the vine, trod 
it down, and devoured it. Whom does the owner of the vineyard 
represent? What does the vineyard, or ground devoted to the 
growth of the vine, stand for ? Whom does the vine represent ? 
What do the wild grapes stand for? Whom do the beasts that 
destroy the vine denote ? \ 

What are the representatives of the allegory Ezekiel xxxi. ? 
Whom does the cedar denote ? Whom do the other trees stand for ? 
Who are the parties denoted by the beasts and birds? What does 
the overthrow of the cedar represent ? 

What are the representatives of men in the parable of the sower ? 
What are the representatives of temptations and obstacles to 
obedience to the gospel? What likeness is there between the 
ground that yields good crops, and hearers that receive the word of 
the gospel into good and honest hearts ? 

How does Jotham's parable differ from an allegory ? 

Are other figures ever used in the descriptive parts of the alle- 
gory ? Give an example. 

Are all Christ's parables framed on the principle of the allegory ? 
Specify some that are not. In what respect do those parables 
differ from the allegory ? 



LESSONS. 

Let the scholar explain the allegory of the eagles Ezekiel xvii. 
What are the animal representatives? What are the vegetable 
representatives? Whom do the eagles represent, as explained in 



126 THE ALLEGORY. 

verses 11—21 ? "Whom does the highest branch of the cedar repre- 
sent? Who are denoted by the vine? What is meant by the 
plucking up and destruction of the cedar, and the withering of the 
vine ? What analogy is there between transplanting a cedar, vine, 
and other plants, from one country to another, and the event which 
it is here employed to represent ? 

Let the scholar explain the parable of the supper, Luke xiv. 16- 
24. What does the supper represent? Who is denoted by the 
man who made the supper? What does the invitation to the 
supper signify? Whom do those who refuse the invitation repre- 
sent ? Who, in distinction from them, do the persons next invited 
denote ? 



THE IMAGINARY FIGURE OF THE SPIRITUALISTS. 127 



CHAPTEE XI. 

THE IMAGINARY FIGURE OF THE SPIRITUALISTS. 

The comparison, metaphor, metonymy, synec- 
doche, hyperbole, hypocatastasis, apostrophe, per- 
sonification, and allegory, are all the tropical forms 
there are, and all indeed that are possible. There 
is no conceivable mode besides them in which lan- 
guage can be used by a figure. "When affirmations 
are made of agents, objects, qualities, acts, or con- 
ditions that are in accordance with their nature, 
and expressive of the facts as they appear to our 
senses and reason, then the language is absolutely 
literal. When direct and specific statements are 
made of the resemblances in nature, qualities, acts, 
conditions, or relations that subsist between dif- 
ferent things, the language is always literal also ; 
and the figure lies in the use of the things compared, 
for the purpose of illustration and ornament. When 
qualities or acts that are truly proper to agents or 



128 THE IMAGINARY FIGURE 

objects are ascribed to them in degrees tbat exceed 
the reality, it is by the hyperbole. When natures, 
properties, conditions, acts, relations, are ascribed to 
agents and things that do not really belong to them, 
but only resemble what is proper to them, it is by 
the transfer to them by the metaphor of terms that 
are the proper names of differing tilings. When 
acts or conditions are ascribed to agents that are 
proper to them, or within the sphere of their nature, 
though not actually to take place, but that are, for 
the purpose of illustration and emphasis, substituted 
for others to which they bear a resemblance, that 
are to take place, it is by the hypocatastasis. When 
persons or things are called by names that are not 
proper to them, but are the names of things that 
have an intimate relation to them, it is by meto- 
nymy. When a part of a thing is called by the 
name of the whole, or the whole is called by the 
name of a part, it is by the synecdoche. When 
persons or things are directly addressed, in dis- 
courses that treat mainly of other subjects, and acts, 
properties, or conditions ascribed to them that are 
proper to their nature, it is by the apostrophe. 
When unintelligent objects are addressed as though 
they had the faculties and organs of intelligences, 
and acts or affections ascribed to them that are 
proper to persons, it is by the prosopopoeia, or per- 



OF THE SPIRITUALISTS. 129 

sonification. And when agents, objects, acts, con- 
ditions, and effects of one class or sphere are used 
for the purpose of exemplification, to represent 
analogous agents, objects, acts, conditions, or effects 
of another class and sphere, it is by the allegory or 
parable. And these are the only possible forms in 
which language, acts, or things can be used by a 
figure. And in all these forms which involve pro- 
positions, the figure lies wholly in the affirmative 
part of the propositions, not in the names of the 
agents or things of which the affirmations are made. 
Thus when things are compared, the things com- 
pared are those which are directly named, not a 
different set for which those names are used by a 
trope. The nominatives of the propositions affirming 
the resemblances are always used literally. In the 
metaphor, the hypocatastasis, and the hyperbole, the 
names of the agents or objects to which the figure is 
applied are always employed in their literal sense 
In the apostrophe and personification, the persons 
or things addressed are always literally those that 
are named as the objects of address. In the meto- 
nymy and synecdoche, the object of the affirmation 
is always that which is denoted by the noun as it is 
used ly the figure. If Assyria, for example, is used 
by metonymy for the inhabitants of Assyria, it is to 
the inhabitants, not to the country, that the affirma- 



130 THE IMAGINARY FIGURE 

tion made respecting Assyria relates ; and if the 
hand is used by synecdoche for the person, it is to 
the person that the proposition respecting the hand 
relates. And in the allegory and parable there is 
always an express indication who or what it is that 
the figure is employed to exemplify and illustrate. 

There are many writers, however, wmo assume, 
and frame interpretations of the most important 
portions of the sacred Scriptures, on the assumption 
that there is still another figure ; and that has the 
extraordinary peculiarity, that the nominative, or 
subject of the affirmation, is used by a trope, as well 
as the affirmation itself. No formal definition, 
indeed, is given by them of this imagined figure ; 
and no exposition of its laws ; neither are any 
examples cited of it ; nor any direct proofs given of 
its existence. It is tacitly assumed, however, by 
thousands of writers in the exposition of the histories 
and prophecies of the sacred word, and construc- 
tions placed on them that proceed on the supposition, 
that if there be any figure in the passages giving 
the sense they ascribe to them, it must be of such an 
anomalous kind. It is obvious, however, that no 
such figure can exist, inasmuch as if the name of 
that to which the affirmation in a proposition is 
applied, were not used in its literal sense, it would be 
impossible to know wha or what it is to which the 



OF THE SPIRITUALISTS. 131 

proposition relates., and which it is the object of the 
figure to illustrate. Thus in respect to the annun- 
ciation to Mary, " Behold, thou shalt bring forth a 
son, and shalt call his name Jesus; he shall be 
great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest ; 
and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne 
of his father David, and he shall reign over the house 
of Jacob for ever ; and of his kingdom there shall 
be no end " (Luke i. 31-33) ; — if this prediction 
were used by such a figure as these writers assume, it 
would be wholly impossible to determine who the 
personage is to whom it refers ; for if Jesus is used 
in a tropical sense for some other being, not for the 
son of Mary, how can it be known who he is ? The 
supposition that language is used by such a figure, 
would thus necessarily destroy all certainty and 
probability of its meaning. 

These expositors, accordingly, do not in fact 
adhere to their theory, that such passages are figu- 
rative, but tacitly assume that they are symbolical, 
and that the agents, acts, and events of which they 
treat, are employed much on the principle of pro- 
phetic symbols, as representatives of others of a 
different class. This is what is called the spirituali- 
zation of the Scriptures, or ascription to them of a 
mystical meaning wholly different from their philolo- 
gical sense. Thus the histories of the Israelites, and 



132 THE IMAGINARY FIGURE 

the predictions of their restoration to their ancient 
land, their conversion, the rebuilding of Jerusalem 
and the temple, and the reign of Jehovah there over 
them, are held to be figurative in that form ; that 
is, that their philological meaning is but a shell 
under which a spiritual or mystical sense, which is 
their true one, is veiled ; or that those persons, 
places, acts, and events, are used by their imagined 
figure to foreshow simply that the Gentiles are to be 
converted to the Christian faith, and become par- 
takers of salvation. On this theory, a large share 
of the predictions of the ancient prophets are inter- 
preted by them. Thus Isaiah ii. 1-5, in which the 
elevation in the last days of mount Zion above the 
surrounding hills is foreshown, and the resort there 
of all nations for instruction in respect to God's will, 
his judging them, and their becoming universally 
peaceful and happy, is construed in that manner : 

" And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the 
mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top 
of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and 
all nations shall* flow unto it. And many people shall go 
and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the 
Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob ; and he will teach 
lis of his ways, and we will walk in his paths ; for out of 
Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from 
Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and 



OF THE SPIRITUALISTS. 133 

shall rebuke many people ; and they shall beat their swords 
into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks ; 
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall 
they learn war any more. house of Jacob, come ye and 
let us walk in the light of the Lord. 

The prediction made through this language does 
not relate, it is held by these expositors, to the 
mountain on which the temple — Jehovah's house — 
stood, and is to stand, to Jerusalem, to the temple, 
to the Gentiles going there, nor to the Israelites ; 
but these places, peoples, and acts are mere veils of 
a wholly different set ; and the genuine and only 
real meaning is, simply, that all nations are to be 
converted to Christianity, and become members of 
the Christian church. This fancy is, however, 
wholly mistaken. In the first place, there is no 
figure that can make the passage capable of such a 
construction. There is none but the metaphor, 
the hypocatastasis, and the allegory, that can be 
supposed to give it an analogous or representative 
sense. But neither the metaphor nor the hypoca- 
tastasis could make the subjects of which the affir- 
mations are made, namely, the mountain of the 
Lord's house, all nations, many peoples, and Je- 
hovah, any other than those that are expressly 
named in it ; as it is the law of those figures, that 



134 THE IMAGINARY FIGURE 

their nominatives, or the agents or subjects to which 
the j are applied, are the agents or subjects of the 
acts or events which the figures express. If the 
passage, therefore, were a metaphor, or a hypoca- 
tastasis, the mountain of the Lord's house, and all 
nations, as well as Jehovah, would be the subjects 
and agents of the acts and events that are severally 
predicted of them ; not a different place, and 
different peoples. Indeed, how can all nations be 
supposed to stand for other nations, when there are 
no others in the world ? The fancy that the terms 
are used in such a relation, implies that the peoples 
whom the prediction contemplates are inhabitants 
of another sphere. ISTor could the allegory any 
more make it the vehicle of such a sense. So far 
from it, it would make the Israelites the people 
whom the prophecy most specifically contemplates ; 
for it is the law of that figure, that the parties whose 
conduct, condition, or history it is employed to 
exemplify, are those who are expressly mentioned, 
either at its beginning or its close, as the persons or 
people whom it represents. But this prediction is 
directly addressed in the title to the Israelites : 
"The word that Isaiah saw" — that is, that was 
communicated to him — "concerning Judah and 
Jerusalem ;" in which Judah and Jerusalem are 
used by metonymy for their inhabitants. This is 



VF THE SPIRITUALISTS. 135 

shown also by the apostrophe at the close : " O, 
house of Jacob, come ye and let us walk in the 
light of the Lord;" it being the law of that figure, 
that the persons or objects addressed are the persons 
and objects exclusively that are meant: and they 
are here the Israelites, the house of Jacob being 
used by metonymy for the family or descendants of 
Jacob, who are the Israelites. Moreover, as in the 
allegory, all the descriptive parts are representative, 
if the mountain of the Lord's house, his temple 
itself, Zion, Jerusalem, and the act of all nations in 
going to it, are representative, so must the nations 
themselves, their expressions, their beating their 
swords into ploughshares and their spears into 
priming-hooks, and their learning w T ar no more, be 
representative also ; so that the all nations of whom 
those acts are predicted cannot be the nations 
of this world, for they are by the supposition repre- 
sentatives, not those represented, but must be 
nations of some other orb, which is impossible. It 
is not only certain, therefore, that the passage is not 
used by either of these figures, but equally certain 
that if it were, it could not make it the vehicle of 
the mystical sense which these spiritualizing inter- 
preters ascribe to it. 

The assumption these writers tacitly make, that 
the agents, objects, and actions mentioned in it are 



136 THE IMAGINARY FIGURE 

used in much the same manner as the symbols of 
Daniel and John are, is equally mistaken and 
absurd ; for as it is a law of symbols, that agents 
represent agents, acts denote acts, effects effects, 
places places, and conditions conditions ; if the 
passage is symbolic, not only must Jerusalem, 
Zion, the mountain of the Lord's house, and 
Jehovah's temple itself, be used as representatives 
of different but analogous places; but all nations 
also, and their going up to the mountain of the 
Lord's house, their consultations and resolutions, 
and their beating their swords and spears into 
implements of husbandry, must be representative 
of a different set of nations, and different classes 
of acts ; which is impossible, as there are no other 
nations besides all the nations of the world. That it 
is not symbolical, is seen, also, from the fact, that the 
objects, agents, and acts of the prediction were not 
seen by the prophet in vision actually passing as they 
are here described. The events which he predicts 
he represents as future, not as having been already 
beheld by him in vision ; but all the symbols of 'the 
Scriptures were actually beheld by the prophets, 
who describe them, either in vision or by the natural 
eye ; and the representative spectacles are depicted 
by them in the past tense as having already had 
existence and been seen ; and it is in that relation. 



OF THE SPIKTHJALISTS. 137 

as agents, objects, and occurrences that have already 
had an existence, that they are employed as pro- 
phetic representatives of other similar or analogous 
agents, objects, acts, and events that are to exist at 
a future period. The construction placed on the 
passage by the spiritualizing interpreters, is thus 
as inconsistent with the supposition that it is sym- 
bolical, as it is with the fancy that it is figurative. 

The pretext, therefore, that there is any figure 
besides those we have enumerated, or that there is 
any legitimate principle on which mere philological 
passages like that which we have been considering 
can be construed, as though they were used, as a 
whole, by some peculiar figure, or were symbolical, 
so that a mystical sense is to be educed from them, 
and made to supersede their natural and philological 
meaning, is wholly groundless, and involves a mon- 
strous perversion of the histories and predictions to 
which it is applied. It is a most unscholarly and 
clumsy contrivance, without a solitary reason to 
justify it, to set aside the plain and indubitable 
teachings of the word of God, for the purpose of 
substituting in their place the lawless fancies and 
absurd dreams of presumptuous men. 



THE EFFECT OF 



CHAPTEE Xn. 

THE EFFECT OF FIGURES ON STYLE. 

Figures, it is seen from the foregoing analysis, 
are not only highly ornamental to style, but are 
important aids to a clear, forcible, and emphatic 
expression of thought. There is not one, in the long 
series that has been quoted, that does not give dis- 
tinctness and point, as well as grace, to that which 
it is employed to depict or express ; while the most 
elegant examples, especially of the comparison, the 
metaphor, the hypocatastasis, the apostrophe, the 
personification, and the allegory, invest the subjects 
they are used to illustrate with a drapery of light, 
and raise them to a beauty and splendor of which 
they would otherwise be wholly devoid. 

Persons differ much in their capacity and dis- 
position to express themselves in tropes. As they 
are founded on the resemblances that subsist 
between different things, the power and disposition 



FIGURES ON STYLE. 139 

to use them depends very much on the ease and 
clearness with which resemblances are perceived. 
There are some to whom they^psesent themselves in 
almost an endless train, in every sphere of life and 
thought, and in the most striking and beautiful 
forms ; and they use them on every occasion, in 
public speaking, in writing, and in conversation. 
Others employ them less frequently ; but there are 
none to whom they are not often the favorite 
vehicle of expression, and to whom they do not give 
pleasure. Even the great poets differ much in the 
frequency with which they use them. Homer and 
Milton — in whose works some of the noblest forms, 
especially of the comparison, occur — use them 
rarely, compared with Shakspeare, Young, Thomson, 
and Byron. Thus one of the most poetic and 
beautiful passages of Milton has but a single figure, 
a metaphor, in the use of the word gems : 

" To whom thus Eve, with perfect beauty adorned : 
With thee conversing, I forget all time, 
All seasons, and their change ; all please alike. 
Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet, 
"With charm of earliest birds ; pleasant the sun, 
When first on this delightful land he spreads 
His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flower, 
Glistering with dew ; fragrant the fertile earth 
After soft showers ; and sweet the coming on 



14:0 THE EFFECT OF 

Of grateful evening mild ; then silent night, 
With this her solemn bird, and this fair moon, 
And these the gems of heaven, her starry train. 
But neither breath of morn, when she ascends, 
With charm of earliest birds ; nor rising sun 
On this delightful land ; nor herb, fruit, flower, 
Glistering with dew ; nor fragrance after showers ; 
Nor grateful evening mild ; nor silent night, 
With this her solemn bird ; nor walk by moon; 
Nor glittering starlight, without thee is sweet." 

Paradise Lost, b. iv. 

The reason that no figures were necessary to 
heighten the grace and splendor of this exquisite 
passage is, that the objects enumerated, and the 
sentiments expressed, are themselves so beautiful 
and pleasing that there are no others that can shed 
over them a brighter radiance, or invest them with 
greater charms to the fancy or the heart. Milton 
showed, therefore, the truth of his poetic judgment 
as clearly, in presenting them without an attempt at 
ornament, as he did in using figures when treating 
themes that needed to be illustrated and adorned by 
resemblances. On the other hand, the figure he 
employs in the passage is admissible in the instance 
in which he uses it, inasmuch as it is in accordance 
with the appearance of the stars to the eye ; as they, 
in fact, seem to be but illuminated points set in the 



FIGURES ON STYLE. 141 

arch of the firmament, at a moderate distance above 
us ; their twinkle resembles the gleam of brilliant 
gems; and the conception has a beauty and majesty 
that are in harmony with the subject. 

There is a similar instance in the description of 
the Messiah's return to heaven, after the creation of 
the earth : 

" Up be . rode. 
Followed with acclamation, and the sound 
Symphonious of ten thousand harps, that tuned 
Angelic harmonies ; the earth, the air 
Resounded (thou remember'st, for thou heard'st) ; 
The heavens, and all the constellations, rung ; 
The planets in their station listening^g tood^^ 
While the bright pomp ascended jubilant." 

Book vii. 

This is one of the most poetic passages in the 
poem; yet its sublimity consists chiefly in the 
things described, not in the mode of their descrip- 
tion. The only metaphors are in the use of " rode," 
" listening," and " stood." The latter, however, are 
unrivalled in appropriateness and beauty. The 
exhibition of the planets, as spectators, and ascrip- 
tion to them of acts expressive of awe, wonder, and 
joy, has a grandeur that befits the occasion. 

Young abounds in figures, especially the meta- 



112 THE EFFECT OF 

plior, and both of the most bold and delicate kinds, 
as in the following passage : 

" Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep, 
He, like the world, his ready visit pays 
Where fortune smiles ; the wretched he forsakes ; 
Swift on his downy pinion flies from woe, 
And lights on lids unsullied by a tear. 

^Tm ifihftftif -* a usual, and disturbed repose 
I wake. How happy they who wake no more ! 
Yet that were vain, if dreams infest the grave. 
I wake emerging from a sea of dreams 
Tumultuous ; where my wreck'd, desponding thought, 
From wave to wave of fancied misery, 
At random dro^. her.hejm of reason lost. 
Though now restor'd, 't is only change of pain, 
A bitter change ! severer for severe. 
The day too short for my distress, and night, 
E'en in the zenith of her dark domain, 
Is sunshine to the color of my fate. 

Night, sable goddess ! from her ebon throne, 
In rayless majesty, now stretches forth 
Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumbering world. 
Silence how dead ! and darkness how profound ! 
Nor eye, nor listening ear, an object finds. 
Creation sleeps. 'T is as the general pulse 
Of life stood still ; and nature made a pause, 
An awful pause, prophetic of her end. 



FIGURES ON STYLE. 143 

And let her prophecy be soon fulfilled. 

Fate ! drop the curtain ! I can lose no more." 

Night Thoughts, b. i. 

There are in this passage more than thirty tropes ; 
every one of them is appropriate, and contributes to 
the strength of the delineation, and the picture 
owes to them almost entirely its vivid reality and 
impressive grandeur. Nature, in the first line, is 
used by synecdoche for mankind, or at most for the 
different orders of creatures in the world that are 
subjects of sleep. Sweet, which denotes a grateful 
quality discerned by taste, and balmy, an agreeable 
quality perceived by smell, are used by a metaphor 
to signify the analogous feeling of refreshment by 
sleep. In the second line, is a comparison of the 
conduct of sleep to that of the world ; and visit, and in 
the third line, smiles are used by a metaphor. In the 
fourth and fifth, pinion is used by an elliptical, and 
downy, flies, and lights, by a full metaphor ; downy 
being employed to express the weightlessness or soft- 
ness of the pinion, not the material with which it is 
in part invested. Pinion is used also by a synecdoche 
for pinions. In the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and 
ninth lines of the next paragraph, sea, wreck'd, wave, 
drove, helm, and bitter are used by a metaphor. As 
in the former instance, pinions being ascribed to 
sleep, the acts that he is then exhibited as exerting, 



144 THE EFFECT OF 

flying and lighting, are in harmony with that 
imputed nature ; so in this, after denominating a 
series of dreams a sea, all the acts that follow are 
in harmony with that metaphor : he is driven from 
wave to wave, his helm is lost, and he is at length 
wrecked. In the last two lines of the paragraph, zenith, 
domain, sunshine, and color v are used by a metaphor, 
and there is a comparison of night to the poet's fate. 
In the last paragraph, night is first by an ellip- 
tical metaphor denominated a goddess ; and then, 
by a full metaphor, the badges of a goddess 
are ascribed to her — a throne, majesty, a sceptre — 
and the act of stretching it forth. Leaden is used 
also by a metaphor to denote the weightiness and 
slumberousness of her reign. In the fourth line, 
dead and profound are used by a metaphor to 
express absoluteness. In the next line, sleeps is used 
by a metaphor. Pulse is used by an elliptical 
metaphor in the sense of throb, or movement ; life, 
in the following line, is put by metonymy for the 
living ; stood, is used by a metaphor to signify a 
discontinuance of motion ; and there is a comparison 
between the inaction of nature and the motionlessness 
of that metaphorical pulse. In the last line but one, 
prophecy is used by a metaphor ; and in the last, 
fate is apostrophized ; and drop the curtain, is used 
by a hypocatastasis, in place of an act of a resem- 



FIGURES OX STYLE. 145 

bling kind, which would show that the drama of 
life was closed. 

Cowper's imagination was much less prolific. 
Many of his passages, however, are highly figura- 
tive. The following personification of Eyening is 
eminently beautiful : 

" Come Evening, once again, season of peace ; 
Return, sweet Evening, and continue long. 
Methinks I see thee in the streaky west, 
With matron step slow moving, while the night 
Treads on thy sweeping train ; one hand employed 
In letting fall the curtain of repose 
On bird and beast, the other charg'd for man, 
With sweet oblivion of the cares of day ; 
Not sumptuously adorned, not needing aid, 
Like homely-featured night, of clustering gems ; 
A star or two just twinkling on thy brow 
Suffices thee, save that the moon is thine, 
No less than hers ; not worn inMeed on high, 
With ostentatious pageantry, but set 
With modest grandeur in thy purple zone, 
Resplendent less, but of an ampler round. 
Come then, and thou shalt find thy vot'ry calm, 
Or make me so. Composure is thy gift ; 
And whether I devote thy gentle hours 
To books, to music, or the poet's toil, 

I slight thee not, but make thee welcome still." 

Task, b. iy ? 



146 THE EFFECT OF 

Evening being addressed as a person, by a meta- 
phor a step is ascribed to her, a train, and hands ; 
and, by the same figure, night is exhibited as 
treading on her train. By a hypocatastasis, she is 
exhibited as dropping with one hand a curtain, and 
as holding oblivion in the other; these acts being 
put for the analogous influences she exerts in pro- 
moting the sleep of birds, beasts, and men. Sweet 
is used, by a metaphor, for delightsome, or sooth- 
ing ; and oblivion is put by metonymy for that 
which causes the forge tfulness of sleep. Homely- 
featured is used by a metaphor ; gems, also, brow, 
zone, gift, and gentle. 

Thomson's personification of Spring, though 
rather hinted than fully depicted, is eminently beau- 
tiful : 

"Come, gentle Spring, etherial mildness come; 
And from the bosom of yon dropping cloud, 
While music wakes around, veil'd in a showei 
Of shadowing roses, on our plains descend." 

Here Spring is conceived as a person, descending 
from a cloud, veiled in a shower of roses. It is not 
an apostrophe, as in that figure the acts or condi- 
tions ascribed to the object addressed are always 
such as are suited to its nature. Spring does not 
literally descend from a cloud, veiled in a shower 



FIGURES ON STYLE. 147 

of roses. Gentle, bosom, and veiled are used by a 
metaphor. It will perhaps be thought, that " a 
shower of shadowing roses " is metaphorical. It is 
not, however ; as it is. not inconsistent with the 
nature of roses that they should fall in a shower 
through the air, on the supposition that they were 
thrown loose there ; nor inconsistent with the nature 
of Spring, considered as a person, and the generator 
of flowers, to suppose her, in descending from a 
cloud, to scatter a shower of roses from her hands. 
This will be seen by substituting for the rose-shower 
a dress ; as in the following : 

Come, gentle Spring, etherial mildness come, 
And from the bosom of yon dropping cloud, 
While music wakes around, veil'd in a robe 
With roses pictured, violets and vines, 
Upon our plains descend. 

Here there is no metaphor ; but it is as appro- 
priate to Spring personified, and the generator of 
flowers, that in winging her way down through the 
skies she should scatter a shower of roses from her 
hands, as it is suitable to her as a woman to wear a 
robe, adorned with the images of flowers. 

Moore's verse abounds in images, and often of the 
most subtle, delicate, and complicated kinds ; as in 
the following passage, in which three nouns are 



148 THE EFFECT OF 

elliptically metaphorized, and the acts that are 
exhibited as exercised in connexion with the 
objects for which they stand, are used by the hypo- 
catastasis : 

"And thus as in Memory's bark we shall glide, 

To visit the scenes of our boyhood anew — 
Though oft we may see, looking down on the tide, 

The wreck of full many a hope shining through — 
Yet still, as in fancy, we point to the flowers 

That once made a garden of all the gay shore, 
Deceived for a moment, we'll think them still ours, 

And breathe the fresh air of life's morning once more." 

As memory has no literal bark, hope no wreck, 
nor life a morning, those nouns are used by a meta- 
phor ; but the acts the poet exhibits himself, and 
those whom he addresses, as to exercise in reference 
to them — gliding to other scenes, looking on the 
tide, seeing wrecks shining through, pointing to 
flowers, and breathing the fresh air of morning — are 
all used by substitution for analogous acts of recol- 
lection. 

Point out the pauses in the passage from Milton, " To whom 
thus Eve, with perfect "beauty adorned." Point out the trochees in 
it, and show their effect on the modulation. What is it that con- 
stitutes the peculiar beauty of the passage ? What is it that con- 
tributes to the beauty of the rhythm of the second and last lines of 



FIGURES ON STYLE. 149 

the passage from Milton, " Up he rode " ? Designate the pauses in 
the passage from Young, "Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy 
sleep." Which of the lines has the finest modulation ? Point out 
the caesuras in the passage from Cowper, " Come evening once 
again, season of peace." Which of the lines has the sprightliest 
and most graceful movement ? What figures are there in the pas- 
sage from Thomson, " Come, gentle Spring, etherial mildness, come"? 
Of what feet are the lines from Moore formed, "And thus as 
in Memory's bark we shall glide " ? 



LESSONS. 

" Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire 
Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed, 
Or waked to extacy the living lyre. 

" But knowledge to their eyes her ample page, 
Eich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll ; 
Chill penury repressed their noble rage, 
And froze the genial current of the soul. 

" Full many a gem of purest ray serene 

The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear ; 
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 
And waste its sweetness on the desert air." 



Gray. 



In the first stanza there are two adjectives, two nouns, one verb, 
and one participle, used by a metaphor. Which are they ? In the 
second, there is a personification, and three adjectives, two nouns, 
and a verb are used by a metaphor. Point them out. In the 



150 THE EFFECT OF 

third, there are three verbs used by that figure. Designate them. 
What is it that gem and flower are used to illustrate? 

" Strange heart of man ! that even midst woe swells high ; 
When through the foam he sees his proud bark sweep, 
Flinging out joyous gleams to wave and sky! 
Yes, it swells high whate'er he leaves behind; 
His spirit rises with the rising wind : 
For, wedded to the far futurity, 
On, on it bears him ever, and the main 
Seems rushing like his hope, some happier shore to gain." 

Hemans. 

There are here two hypocatastases and a comparison ; and four 
verbs, two participles, and five adjectives, are used by a metaphor. 
Which are they ? 

" A paler shadow strews 
Its mantle o'er the mountains ; parting day 

Dies like a dolphin, whom each pang imbues 
With a new color, as it gasps away, 
The last still loveliest, till — 't is gone — and all is grey." 

Byron. 

There is in this passage a comparison ; and two verbs, one noun, 
and one adjective, are used metaphorically. Point them out. 

" Be silent, groves ! O, may ye be 
For ever mirth's best nursery ! 
May pure contents 
For ever pitch their tents 

Upon these downs, these meads, these rocks, these mountains, 
And peace still slumber by these purling fountains I 
Which we may every year 
Find when we come a-fishing here." 

Sib W. Raleigh. 



FIGURES ON STYLE. 151 

There are an apostrophe, three metaphors, and one hypocata- 
stasis in the passage. Point them out. 

" Now conscience wakes despair 
That slumbered, wakes the bitter menlb*^ 
Of what he was, what is, and what must be 
Worse; if worse deeds, worse sufferings must ensue," 

Milton. 

Three verbs and one adjective are used here by a metaphor. 
Designate them. 

"Hope is a lover's staff; walk hence with that, 
And manage it against despairing thoughts." 

Shakspeare. 

There is in this passage a metaphor and two hypocatastases. 
Point them out. 

" My heart is like a sleeping lake, 

Which takes the hue of cloud and sky. 
And only feels its surface break 

When birds of passage wander by, 
And dip their wings, then upward soar, 
And leave it quiet as before." 

Willis. 

There is in this stanza a comparison and three metaphors. Desig- 
nate them. 

" The groans of nature in this nether world 
Which heaven has heard for ages, have an end. 
Foretold by prophets, and by poets sung, 
Whose fire was kindled at the prophets' lamp, 
The time of rest, the promised sabbath comes. 



152 THE EFFECT OF 

Six thousand years of sorrow have well nigh 
Fulfilled their tardy and disastrous course 
Over a sinful world ; and what remains 
Of this tempestuous $tate of human things 
Is merely a"s the working of a sea- -♦ * 

Before a calm, that rocks itself to rest : 
For he whose car the winds are, and .the clouds 
The dust that waits upon his sultry march, 
When sin hath moved him, and his wrath is hot, 
Shall visit earth in mercy ; shall descend 
Propitious in his chariot, paved with love ; 
And what his storms have blasted and defaced 
For man's revolt, shall with a smile repair. 

Sweet is the harp of prophecy ; too sweet 
JSTot to be wronged by a mere mortal touch ; 
Nor can the wonders it records be sung 
To meaner music, and not suffer loss. 
But when a poet, or when one like me, 
Happy to rove among poetic flowers, 
Though poor in skill to rear them, lights at last 
On some fair theme, some theme divinely fair, 
Such is the impulse and the spur he feels 
To give it praise proportioned to its worth, 
That not t* attempt it, arduous as he deems 
The labor, were a task more arduous still. 

O scenes surpassing fable, and yet true ; 
Scenes of accomplished bliss ! which who can see, 
Though but in distant prospect, and not feel 
His soul refreshed with foretaste of the joy? 
Eivers of gladness water all the earth, 
And clothe all climes with beauty ; the reproach 
Of barrenness is past. The fruitful field 



FIGURES ON STYLE. 153 

Laughs with abundance ; and the land once lean, 

Or fertile only in its own disgrace, 

Exults to see its thistly curse repealed. 

The various seasons woven into one, 

And that- One season an eternal spring, 

The garden feels no blight, and needs no fence, 

For there are none to covet — all are full. 

The lion, and the libbard, and the bear, 
Graze whh the fearless flocks ; all bask at noon 
Together, or all gambol in the shade 
Of the same grove, and drink one common stream. 
Antipathies are none. No foe to man 
Lurks in the serpent now ; the mother sees, 
And smiles to see her infant's playful hand 
Stretched forth to dally with the crested worm, 
To stroke his azure neck, or to receive 
The lambent homage of his arrowy tongue. 
All creatures worship man, and all mankind 
One Lord, one Father. Error has no place. 
That creeping pestilence is driven away ; 
The breath of heaven has chased it. In the heart 
No passion touches a discordant string, 
But all is harmony and love. Disease 
Is not. The pure and uncontaminate blood 
Holds its due course, nor fears the frost of age. 

One song employs all nations ; and all cry, 
' Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us !' 
The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks 
Shout to each other ; and the mountain tops, 
From distant mountains, catch the flying joy ; 
Till, nation after nation taught the strain, 
Earth rolls the rapturous hosannah round. 

7* 



154 THE EFFECT OF 

Behold the measure of the promise filled ; 
See Salem built, the labor of a God ! 
Bright as a sun the sacred city shines ; 
All kingdoms and all princes of the earth 
Flock to that light ; the glory of all lands 
Flows into her ; unbounded is her joy ; 
And endless her increase. Thy rams are there, 
Nebaioth ; and the flocks of Kedar there ; 
The looms of Ormus ; and the mines of Ind ; 
And Saba's spicy groves pay tribute there. 
Praise is in all her gates ; upon her walls, 
And in her streets, and in her spacious courts 
Is heard salvation. Eastern Java there 
Kneels with the native of the farthest "West ; 
And ^Ethiopia spreads abroad the hand, 
And worships. Her report has travelled forth 
Into all lands. From every clime they come 
To see thy beauty and to share thy joy, 
Sion ; an assembly such as earth 
Saw never, such as heaven stoops down to see. 
Come, then, and added to thy many crowns 
Eeceive yet one, the crown of all the earth, 
Thou who alone art worthy ! It was thine 
By ancient covenant, ere nature's birth ; 
And thou hast made it thine by purchase since, 
And overpaid its value with thy blood. 
Thy saints proclaim thee king ; and in their hearts 
Thy title is engraven with a pen 
Dipped in the fountain of eternal love. 
Thy saints proclaim thee king ; and thy delay 
Gives courage to their foes, who, could they see 
The dawn of thy last advent, long desired, 



, 



FIGURES ON STYLE. 155 



Would creep into the bowels of the hills, 
And flee for safety to the falling rocks." 



Cowper. 



Let the scholar, in a series of lessons, if necessary, designate the 
figures in this passage, and point out the peculiarities of the modu- 
lation. 



156 APPLICATION OF THE 



CHAPTER Xin. 

rHE APPLICATION OF THE LAWS OF FIGURES TO 
INTERPRETATION. 

The knowledge of the laws of figures is as neces- 
sary to the just interpretation of language as the 
knowledge is of the literal meaning of words, or 
the rules of grammar. They are the vehicle of the 
thoughts which those who employ them aim to 
express; and not to understand the principle on 
which they are used, is to lose not only much of the 
beauty with which they invest the objects to which 
they are applied, and the distinctness with which 
they set them forth, but often the whole meaning 
which it is their office to convey, and pervert them 
to the expression of a wholly different and false 
sense. This is pre-eminently true of the Scriptures, 
in which they are more frequently used than in any 
other writings. They are not only important aux- 
iliaries in determining the sense, and raising it to a 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 157 

clear certainty, but they present it, in most 
instances, with a beauty and power to which 
untropical language is wholly inadequate. No 
tolerable understanding of the language of the 
prophecies, especially of the Old Testament — as 
those of Isaiah, Jeremiah, most of those of Ezekiel, 
and, with the exception of parts of Daniel and 
Zechariah, all the other prophets — is possible, with- 
out a knowledge of the principles on which their 
figures are used ; while of a large share of their 
predictions, a true explanation of the figures is 
an exposition of their whole meaning, and sets it 
forth with a beauty and force that are seen in no 
other method of interpretation. This is exemplified 
in the following exposition of the figures of Isaiah, 
chapter xiii. : 



A DESIGNATION" AND EXPOSITION OF THE FIGURES 
OF ISAIAH, CHAPTER XIII. 

The preceding visions relate almost exclusively to 
the Israelites, and foreshow judgments that were to 
be inflicted on them. A new series commences in 
the thirteenth chapter, in which the devastation of 
several countries, and overthrow of capitals whose 
population were to be the enemies of Judah, are 
foretold. The first announces the conquest and 



158 APPLICATION OF THE 

desolation of Babylon, and was written probably 
one hundred and twenty or thirty years before that 
city became, by the destruction of Nineveh and the 
fall of the Assyrian power, the capital of the east. 

1. Metonymy of sentence for the vision in which 
it was heard. "The sentence of Babylon which 
Isaiah the son of Amos saw," v. 1. The word trans- 
lated sentence, though often signifying an announce- 
ment or oracle, sometimes denotes a burden, and 
seems to be used only as the name of prophecies 
that foreshow calamities. It is on that account 
supposed by some to be employed by a metaphor to 
indicate that that is the character of the predictions 
to which it is prefixed. It seems improbable, how- 
ever, as there is but a slight analogy between a 
burden imposed on a human being or a beast, and a 
catastrophe by which a great city is reduced to ruin, 
or a country to desolation. The one is proportioned 
in some measure to the strength of the agent that is 
to bear it. The other overwhelms and destroys. It 
is probably, therefore, used by metonymy for the 
vision in which it was heard. If such is not its 
meaning, the verb " saw " must be used by a meta- 
phor, as there are no indications that the prophet 
actually beheld the scenes he describes. The pre- 
diction was communicated to him by a voice, not by 
a visible exhibition, as in a symbolic revelation. It 



LAWS OF FIGURES 159 

was given in a vision or trance, nevertheless, in 
which he beheld the signals of God's presence, and 
was made conscious that it proceeded from him ; 
and it is in that relation doubtless that he repre- 
sents himself as having seen it. The verb therefore 
is used literally. 

2. Apostrophe. " Upon a lofty mountain erect 
the standard ; raise the voice to them ; wave the 
hand, that they may enter the gates of the princes," 
v. 2. This was uttered by Jehovah ; but was not a 
command to the prophet, as the verbs are in the 
plural. Some suppose it to have been addressed to 
angelic beings, others to the captive Jews, and 
others still to the population or soldiery of Media 
and Persia. It was not the office, however, of any 
of those to erect a signal for the collection of an 
army, or to summon them to invade Babylon and 
conquer its metropolis. That was the prerogative 
of the monarchs of Media and Persia ; and it was 
they therefore who were called by the Almighty to 
gather their forces, and prepare to enter the gates of 
the Babylonian dynasty. It is a figure therefore 
of unusual dignity, bears the stamp of the Supreme 
who uttered it, and is appropriate only to him. The 
kings and hosts of the earth are under his dominion, 
and he has but to decree the punishment of his 
enemies by them, and they fulfil his will. 



1G0 APPLICATION OF THE 

3. Hypocatastasis. God next addresses the pro- 
phet, and explains the foregoing command as 
addressed to those whom he had appointed to be 
the instruments of his vengeance. " I have given 
command to my consecrated, and I have called my 
mighty ones for my wrath, my exulters in pride," 
v. 3. The acts of commanding and calling are here 
substituted for analogous acts of providence by 
which the Median princes were led to attempt the 
conquest of Babylon. This figure also is peculiarly 
appropriate to the majesty of God, and indicates the 
absoluteness of his dominion over the agents he was 
to employ, and the certainty that his purposes were 
to be accomplished. Yet, this style, so immeasurably 
above the conceptions of men, and exclusively suit- 
able to the Almighty, some modern neologians 
regard as a proof that the prediction was not the 
work of inspiration, but forged by some pseudo- 
Isaiah of a later age than the prophet. The Median 
princes are called consecrated, to denote that they 
were chosen and designated to be the executors of 
God's will. 

4. Hypocatastasis. The prophet next speaks and 
describes what he heard. " A sound of a multitude 
in the mountains as. of much people ! A sound of 
the tumult of kingdoms, of nations gathered ! Je- 
hovah of hosts mustering a host of batcle !" v. 4. 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 161 

The act of mustering or reviewing a host is pat for 
an analogous act of providence by which his instru- 
ments were led to assemble and muster them. The 
mountains from which the sound came, were those 
doubtless of Media and Persia. That it was the 
sound of a tumult of kingdoms and nations, implies 
that the troops of both kingdoms, and the various 
peoples and tribes that constituted their populations, 
were to be mustered for the war. 

5. Comparison of the sound in the mountains to 
that of a vast crowd of people. What can transcend 
the beauty of this expedient to impress the prophet 
with the greatness of the hostile host, and the cer- 
tainty of their advance ? A confused sound of a 
numerous army, marching, shouting, and perhaps 
clashing their arms, was borne to him from the 
mountains of Persia, producing as vivid a realization 
as though he had been in their presence, heard their 
thundering tread and shout, and witnessed their 
rapid march. 

6. Hypocatastasis. "They come from a distant 
land, from the utmost heaven; Jehovah and the 
instruments of his wrath to iay waste the whole 
land," v. 5. Here Jehovah is represented as at the 
head of the host he had marshalled, and leading it 
towards Babylonia, to signify that he was to conduct 
them on their way by his providence. By the 



162 APPLICATION OF THE 

utmost heaven, is meant the remotest line of the 
horizon. 

7. Apostrophe. The prophet now addresses the 
Babylonians. " Howl ! for the day of Jehovah is 
near. Like desolation from the Almighty shall it 
come," v. 6. The day of Jehovah was the day in 
which he was to inflict his vengeance on Ba- 
bylon. 

8, 9. Metaphors in the use of "near," which is 
properly an adjective of place, and is employed by 
analogy in respect to time ; and " come," which 
properly denotes a motion in space, but is used 
analogically in respect to time. 

10. Comparison of the mode in which the day of 
Jehovah was to come, to that of desolation from the 
Almighty, that is in suddenness and resistlessness. 
Desolation from his hand is instantaneous and abso- 
lute ; as in the devastation of Egypt by plagues, the 
overthrow of Pharaoh's army in the Red sea, and 
the destruction of the Assyrian host by pestilence. 

11. Metaphor in the use of melt. " Therefore all 
hands shall be relaxed" — unnerved — "and every 
heart of man shall melt," v. 7. This most expressive 
figure is used to indicate that the heart of every one 
should lose all its wonted energy, courage, and 
hope, as metals when liquified lose their firmness. 
Dismay and consternation were to be complete and 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 163 

universal, and render the Babylonians incapable of 
defending themselves. 

12. Hypocatastasis. " And they shall be con- 
founded ; pangs and throes shall seize them," v. 8. 
Pangs and throes of the body are used doubtless as 
representatives of analogous affections of the mind. 
They were to be seized, not with sudden and pain- 
ful diseases, but with a terror, anguish, and despair, 
that were to unnerve and overwhelm them as effec- 
tually as a violent paroxysm of corporeal agony 
could. 

13. Metaphor. " Pangs and throes shall seize 
them." To seize is properly the act of an external 
agent. It is used here to indicate that the Baby- 
lonians individually would be as completely over- 
powered by terror and anguish, as they would be if 
each were grasped by a resistless antagonist, or a 
powerful beast of prey. 

14. Comparison. "As a travailing woman they 
shall writhe," v. 8. Restlessness, and the assump- 
tion of attitudes like those which are prompted by 
bodily pain, are natural to persons suffering extreme 
anxiety and anguish. 

15. Metaphor. "Each shall look at his neighbor 
with astonishment. Their faces shall be faces of 
flames," v. 8. That is, flushed with excitement, and 
perhaps confusion and shame. What a vivid deli- 



164: APPLICATION OF THE 

neation is presented by these few strokes of the 
alarm and horror with which the prospect of being 
conquered was to strike them ; and how natural was 
their terror ! The capture of the city was to be 
followed by promiscuous outrage, pillage, and 
slaughter; and those who should survive were to 
exchange the position of conquerors for that of the 
vanquished, and perhaps be reduced to slavery, or 
driven into exile. 

16. Metaphor in the use of cometh. " Behold 
the day of Jehovah cometh, severe with wrath and 
heat of anger, to make the land waste, and its 
sinners he will destroy from it," v. 9. To come 
literally signifies a motion in space. It is used 
metaphorically, when applied to time. Though a 
day of wrath, it was to be a day of justice. Those 
who were destined to destruction in it, were sinners. 

17. Elliptical metaphor in the use of heat of 
anger, to express its vehemence. 

18. Hypocatastasis. "For the stars of heaven and 
the constellations thereof shall not send forth their 
light; the sun is darkened in his going forth, and 
the moon shall not cause its light to shine," v. 10. 
Those orbs are doubtless employed as representa- 
tives of the monarchs and princes of Babylon, and 
their not giving their light and being darkened, 
denotes the failure of those rulers to discharge the 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 165 

proper functions of their office at the time of the 
onset of the Medes. There is an analogy between 
the influence of those light-giving orbs on the world, 
and the proper agency of the rulers of an empire on 
their subjects. The failure of the Babylonian chiefs 
to fulfil the duties of their station as the rulers of 
that city, was to their subjects what the failure of 
the heavenly orbs to give their light would be to 
the world. The language indicates that a change in 
the sun, moon, and stars, was the cause that they 
were not to give their light, — not, as some have 
supposed, a peculiar condition of the atmosphere, or 
dense clouds. It was their state, not that of the air, 
— their ceasing to emit their light, not its being 
prevented from peuetrating the atmosphere, that 
was to be the cause of the extraordinary darkness ; 
and the event corresponded to these representations. 
Instead of guarding the gates, watching from the 
ramparts, and discovering the advance of the Medes 
along the channel of the river and entrance beneath 
the walls, and vigorously repelling them, they 
entirely neglected their duties, and spending the 
night in feasting and revelry, left the city to be 
captured without an effort to defend it. 

19. Hypocatastasis. "And I will visit evil on 
the world, and upon the wicked their iniquity," v. 
11. To visit evil on a nation is to inflict it. That 



166 APPLICATION OF THE 

act of God is here put for acts of his providence by 
which men would be used to inflict those evils. The 
evil and iniquity to be visited on them, were to be 
the evil and iniquity which they had inflicted on 
others. They who had wantonly slaughtered, 
robbed, and oppressed others, were now themselves 
to be conquered, oppressed, and slaughtered. The 
word rendered world, properly signifies the inha- 
bited earth ; and is used to denote the Babylonian 
empire, which was to embrace so large a share of 
the known world, as naturally to receive that deno- 
mination. 

20. Metonymy in the use of the world for its 
population. It was the Babylonians who had been 
guilty of the evils which God was now to avenge, 
and they, not their territory, were to suffer similar 
injuries from their enemies. 

21. Metaphor in the use of bring down, a change 
in space, to express an analogous change in the 
affections of the Babylonian tyrants, by the loss of 
their supremacy. " And I will cause the arrogancy 
of the proud to cease, and will bring down the 
haughtiness of the tyrants," v. 11. They were to be 
hurled down in a moment from the height of power 
to dependence, from glory to disgrace, and from 
tyrannizing over others to a helpless subjection to 
the caprices of their conquerors, and their pride 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 167 

and haughtiness give way to dejection and des- 
pair. 

M And I will make man rarer than fine gold, and 
a human being than the ore of Ophir," v. 12. So 
vast was to be the slaughter, and so general the 
removal into distant countries of the survivors who 
should be capable of engaging in insurrection, that 
a man should be rarer among those still remaining 
in the city, than pure gold and golden ore would be, 
after they had been pillaged by their conquerors. 

22. Hypocatastasis. "Therefore I will make the 
heavens tremble, and the earth shall be shaken out 
of its place in the wrath of Jehovah of hosts, in the 
day of the heat of his anger," v. 13. The heavens 
are used as representatives of the Babylonian rulers, 
and the earth of their subjects ; and the act of God 
in causing the orbs to vibrate from their stations 
and shaking the earth from its place, by which the 
physical world would be involved in disorder and 
ruin, is employed to represent analogous acts by 
which the Babylonian empire would be thrown into 
a resembling disarray and precipitated to destruc- 
tion. With whom but the Almighty could such a 
conception have originated ? And what other image 
could he have employed so suited to indicate the 
absoluteness of his dominion, and the ease with 
which he was to accomplish his purposes ? 



168 APPLICATION OF THE 

23. Elliptical metaphor in the vise of heat — of 
anger — to denote its vehemence. 

24, 25. Comparisons. " And it shall be like a roe 
chased, and like sheep with none to gather them ; 
they shall each turn to his own people, and flee 
every one to his own land," v. 14. This indicates 
the total dissolution of the government. The popu- 
lation who were to he gathered from distant coun- 
tries into Babylon, and the troops assembled there 
from the provinces, were to endeavor to escape and 
return to their several countries. Some were to be 
pursued by the conquerors, like a roe by the hun- 
ters ; some were to fly in confusion and without a 
guide, like a flock without a shepherd. But their 
efforts to escape were to be unavailing. " For every 
one found shall be thrust through, and every one 
joined shall fall by the sword," v. 15. That is, 
every one attempting to fly singly, if overtaken, was 
to be thrust through with a javelin or spear, which 
was the mode in which a pursuer would naturally 
dispatch his victims. And all who should unite to 
repel their assailants, were to fall by the sword, 
which was the weapon commonly employed in close 
combat on foot. The prediction indicates the pro- 
miscuous slaughter of those who should attempt to 
escape from the enemy. 

Those, however, who continued in the city were 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 169 

not to escape. The conquerors were to be as mer- 
ciless towards the unarmed and defenceless as towards 
the flying troops. " And their children shall be 
dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses 
shall be plundered, and their wives ravished," v. 16. 
These were, doubtless, outrages the Babylonian 
troops had in the sack of cities inflicted on others. 
The evil of this kind they had perpetrated was now 
visited on them ; and their haughtiness and pride 
brought down, as they had humbled the arrogance 
of those who had fallen under their power. 

26. Elliptical metaphor in the use of fruit of the 
womb, for offspring. " Behold I excite against them 
the Medes, who will not regard silver, and as for 
gold they will not delight in it. The bows shall 
dash the youth in pieces ; and the fruit of the womb 
they will not pity ; their eye shall not have mercy 
on children," v. IT, 18. What an end of the honor, 
splendor, and luxury of the inhabitants of that proud 
capital, to fall helplessly into the hands of such 
conquerors ! This picture of the unsparing cruelty 
of the Medes is verified by the narratives of the 
Greek historians. They were accustomed to display 
a savage barbarity towards those whom they van- 
quished. 

27. Metonymy, of the eyes for the mind, which 
perceives through them. The helpless and suffering 

8 



170 APPLICATION OF THE 

appeal more strongly to the sympathies when 
beheld, than when a mere description of them is 
heard. To say that the eyes of conquerors will not 
have mercy on children, is to exhibit them as not to 
be moved to pity and forbearance by a spectacle 
that is naturally adapted more than any other to 
touch the hearts even of the cruel, and soften them 
to gentleness. 

28. Metonymy in the use of the abstract for the 
concrete ; or of a quality for that to which it 
belongs. " And Babylon the beauty of kingdoms " 
— that is, the most beautiful city of the kingdoms, — 
" the glory " — that is the most glorious of the 
objects — " of the Chaldees' pride, shall be like God's 
overthrowing Sodom and Gomorrah," v. 19. The 
expression indicates that its splendor was such that 
it was the object of boast and pride, and shed a 
lustre over the whole empire. 

29. Comparison of its overthrow to that of Sodom 
and Gomorrah. Its destruction was to resemble 
theirs, not in the instruments by which it was to be 
accomplished, or its immediateness, but in its com- 
pleteness. It was to be as extraordinary, as resist- 
less, and at length, though occupying a series of 
years, as absolute as that of the cities of the plain. 

" It shall not be inhabited for ever, and it shall 
not be dwelt in from generation to generation ; 



LAWS OF FIGURES, 171 

neither shall the Arab pitch tent there ; nor shall 
the shepherds cause " their flocks " to lie there," v. 
20. No language could more strongly depict its 
utter desolation. It was not only never again to be 
inhabited as a city, but no family or even individual 
was to reside in it from generation to generation. 
The Arabs that were for a long series of ages to 
have possession of the neighboring territory, were 
not even in their marches to pitch tent there ; and 
the shepherds that were to pasture their flocks in 
the surrounding plains, were not to cause them to 
lie down there. But it was not only to be shunned 
by human beings; it was to become the abode of 
wild and worthless animals, that choose the most 
solitary and dismal scenes for their residence. 

30. Metaphor in the use of full. "But creatures 
of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall 
be full of howls, and there shall the daughters of the 
ostrich dwell, and wild goats shall gambol there " 
v. 21. 

31. Elliptical metaphor in the use of daughters 
for the female young or brood of the ostrich. 

32. Metaphor in the use of near, which is an 
adjective of place instead of time. "And wolves 
shall howl in his houses, and jackals in their luxu- 
rious palaces. And her time is near to come, and 
her days shall not be prolonged," v. 22. The sym- 



172 APPLICATION OF THE 

bolic Babylon of the Apocalypse is in like manner 
to become, on its fall, the dwelling of the most 
odious moral beings. " Great Babylon is fallen, is 
fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and 
the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every 
unclean and hateful bird." — Chap, xviii. 2. 

This example shows that the exposition of the 
figures of such a prophecy, is an exposition of 
nearly its whole sense ; and that it presents the sce- 
nery of the prediction, the actors, the actions, the 
events, and the impressions which they make on those 
who witness and share in them, with a vividness and 
beauty to which nnfigurative language is altogether 
unequal. As compared to such a composition^ a plain 
literal description is but what, in painting, a mere 
outline sketch is to a delineation exhibiting the whole 
figure in its living attitude and colors, and indicat- 
ing the thoughts and passions that glow in the 
features and beam from the eyes ; so an interpreta- 
tion of such a prediction that neglects its figures is 
but what a dry sketch is to a full and life-like 
picture — is but what a withered landscape, a leafless 
forest, is to a wide scene of cultivated fields, 
orchards, and wooded hills, when arrayed in the 
fresh verdure, and decked with the gorgeous blos- 
soms of spring. 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 173 

What is the figure in verse 1 ? How does it appear that it is 
not a metaphor? Was the prediction communicated to the pro- 
phet ? What is the figure, verse 2 ? Who was addressed ? Who is 
addressed in verse 3 ? What figure is used ? Is it appropriate and 
lofty ? What is the first figure, verse 4 ? What was it that the 
prophet heard ? What is the second ? What is the character of 
the verse ? What figure is used, verse 5 ? What figure occurs first 
in verse 6? What was the day of Jehovah? What words are 
used figuratively, verse 6? What figure besides is there in it? 
By what figure is "melt " used, verse 7, and what does it express ? 
What nouns are used by a figure, verse 8, and how ? What verb 
in it is used by a figure, and how ? What figure is the third in the 
verse ? What is the fourth ? What does the last imply ? Explain 
the figure, verse 9? What figure is used, verse 10? Explain it. 
Name and explain the figures, verse 11. Is there any figure in 
verse 12? Name and explain the chief figure, verse 13. What is 
its character ? What other figure is there in it ? Point out the 
figures, verses 14, 15. What is taught by them ? What figures 
occur, verses 1*7, 18? Explain them. Explain the first figure, 
verse 19. Explain the second figure, verse 19? What is taught, 
verse 20 ? What figures occur, verse 21 ? What word is used by 
a figure, verse 22 ? Explain it. 



174: RESULTS OF THE 



CHAPTEK XLV. 

THE RESULTS OF THE LAWS OF FIGURES IN THE 
INTERPRETATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

The knowledge and observance of the laws of 
figures in the interpretation of the Scriptures, espe- 
cially of the prophetic parts, are necessary, not only 
to unfold their sense with adequate certainty and 
vividness, but to rescue them from misconstructions 
and perversions to which the ordinary method of 
exposition subjects them. As the figures which we 
have enumerated and explained are the only figures 
of language, and the laws which we have stated 
are their only laws, the common method of interpre- 
tation, which assumes that there are other species 
of figures, and other laws of their construction, mis- 
takes literal for tropical language often, confounds 
the different figures with each other, and disregards 
their proper nature — involves the most serious errors. 

Of these, one of the most frequent is the disregard 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 175 

of the peculiar office which the figures fill, and 
ascription to them of an undefined, vague, and inde- 
terminable power. To get rid of the grammatical 
sense of passages, interpreters often pronounce them 
figurative, without determining what their figures 
are, if they involve any, or showing what effect they 
have on their meaning, as though their being tro- 
pical, if they are so, were a proof, on the one hand, 
that their philological is not their true meaning; 
and, on the other, that their real sense is either 
vague and uncertain, or else left to be determined 
by conjecture or fancy. The result accordingly is, 
a rejection of their true meaning, and the substitu- 
tion of a false one in its place. If such passages 
were really figurative, these interpreters should be 
able to show what the specific tropes are that exist 
in them, and constitute them figurative ; and prove, 
by their proper laws, that they are the vehicle of 
that special sense which they ascribe to them. That 
they do not, and cannot do this, is at once a proof 
of the error of their construction, and of their want 
of a just understanding of the nature and laws of 
figurative language. Instead of rendering the 
meaning of propositions obscure and uncertain, the 
very office of tropes is to exemplify and illustrate 
the objects to which they are applied by analogies, 
and set forth the thoughts which are meant to be 



176 RESULTS OF THE 

expressed more clearly and impressively than is 
practicable by mere literal language. 

Another common error is the ascription of specific 
figures to passages in which no such figures, nor any 
others, exist. Hundreds of examples might be 
quoted of this mistake. It will be sufficient to allege 
a single one, in the interpretation of Christ's predic- 
tion (Matt. xxiv. 30) : 

" And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in 
heaven : and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn : 
and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of 
heaven with power and great glory." 

Here are three propositions. 1. That the sign 
of the Son of Man in heaven shall then be apparent. 

2. That all the tribes of the earth shall then mourn. 

3. And that they — all the tribes of the earth — shall 
see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven 
with power and great glory. The nominative of the 
first of these propositions, or that of which the affir- 
mation is made, is the sign of the Son of Man in 
heaven ; the nominatives of the second and third, 
are all the tribes of the earth. ISTow these propo- 
sitions are by many regarded as metaphorical ; and 
the events accordingly which they foreshow are held 
to be wholly different from those which they lite 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 177 

rally express ; and to have happened at the siege, 
capture, and destruction of Jerusalem by the 
Romans in the reign of Yespasian. But it is a total 
error. There is no metaphor in them. It is seen 
from the 4th and 5th characteristics of that figure, 
that it lies wholly in the affirmative part of the 
proposition in which it occurs, in contradistinction 
from its nominative, or the subject to which it is 
applied ; and that it consists in the ascription of 
something to its nominative that is not proper to 
its nature ; as when the fields are said to smile, 
the metaphor lies in the use of the verb smile, and 
in the ascription by it to the fields of a movement 
of which they are not literally capable, in order to 
signify, that when decked with verdure and flowers, 
and lighted up by the beams of the sun, they exhibit 
a cheerfulness that resembles a smile of the human 
countenance. But there is no such incompatibility 
of the acts or states here foreshown with the subjects 
of which they are predicted. It is not incompatible 
with the nature of the sign of the Son of Man in 
heaven that it should be visible to men. So far 
from it, its office as a sign, that is, as a portent, a 
signal, a harbinger, will necessarily require that it 
should be apparent. An invisible sign, an imper- 
ceptible signal, were a contradiction. Nor is it 
impossible to the nature of the tribes of the earth, 

8* 



178 RESULTS OF THE 

that they should see the Son of Man coming in the 
clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and 
that they should mourn because of it. Instead, 
they are acts that are proper to them, and such as 
they will naturally and unavoidably exert, when 
the advent of Christ takes place. The suppo- 
sition that those propositions are metaphorical is 
thus altogether mistaken, and betrays an extra- 
ordinary inconsideration of the nature of the 
figure. 

On the other hand, it is equally apparent that the 
language is not metaphorical, from the consideration 
that there are no analogous events which the verbs 
can be conceived to denote. As according to the third 
law of the metaphor, the nominative, or name of the 
subject to which it is applied, is always used in its 
literal sense, and denotes the actual agent or subject 
of the act or event which the figure is employed to 
express ; — the sign of the Son of Man in heaven is 
to be the actual subject of the event, whatever it be, 
that is denoted by the sign's appearing. What 
analogous event then is there, which its appearing 
■ — that is, its becoming visible to men — can, on the 
supposition that the verb is used by a metaphor, be 
conceived to denote ? There plainly is none. Let 
these interpreters search the whole realm of events, 
and they will find it impossible to designate one 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 179 

that shall at once be proper to the nature of a sign 
or signal, and yet shall not be its actually appearing ; 
while it shall nevertheless resemble its becoming 
apparent. In order to be a signal, it must be per- 
ceptible by the senses ; and if at a considerable dis- 
tance, as it undoubtedly will be, that is beyond the 
limits of our atmosphere, must be perceptible by 
the eye ; as sound, the only other medium of per- 
ception, cannot be propagated from beyond the 
circuit of the atmosphere. It is equally impossible, 
also, to conceive of resembling acts which the seeing 
of the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, 
and mourning because of it, can denote. All the 
tribes of the earth are, according to the third law 
of the figure, to be the agents of the acts, what- 
ever they are, denoted by seeing the Son of Man, 
and mourning. 

"What act, then, at once proper to their nature, 
and yet differing from mourning, while it resembles 
it, can their mourning be conceived to signify ? Or 
what act, at once proper to their nature, and yet 
differing from seeing the Son of Man coming in the 
clouds, while it resembles it, can their seeing him 
coming in that manner be imagined to denote ? Can 
these interpreters designate any ? A seeing of the 
[Romans invading Judea, and besieging, capturing, 
and destroying Jerusalem, is not such an analogous 



180 RESULTS OF THE 

act ; as, to say nothing of the difference of the object, 
the act, in order to be analogous, must not be an 
act of sight, which would be identically the same ; 
but an act of perception, by a different organ at 
least, or by the intellect instead of the senses. 
Besides, there is no analogy between Christ's 
coming in the clouds with power and great glory to 
destroy his enemies, redeem his people, raise the 
holy dead, and establish his throne on the earth, and 
the Roman army invading Judea, and capturing 
and destroying Jerusalem. No personages, no acts, 
no events, can be more utterly unlike. The fancy 
that the passage is metaphorical is thus altogether 
groundless, and the meaning which it is employed 
to fasten on it a wild extravagance. Had these 
interpreters understood the laws of the metaphor, 
they would not have run into this extraordinary 
error. 

Another frequent error, is the disregard of the 
proper characteristics of figures that exist in 
passages, and ascription to them of functions that 
are wholly foreign to their nature. There is an 
example of this in the construction that is often put 
on Matt. xxiv. 27 : 

" For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth 
even unto the west, so shall also th,e coming of the Son of 
Man be." 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 181 

This is a comparison ; or affirmation that the Son 
of Man's coming shall be like the lightning coming 
out of the east and shining unto the west. By the 
second law of the figure, the names of the things 
compared, the Son of Man's coming, and the light- 
ning's coming and shining, are used in their literal 
sense ; and accordingly the event foreshown in the 
prediction is the Son of Man's literal coming in 
visibility and conspicuousness to the eyes of men, 
like the lightning's coming out of the east and 
shining unto the west. Nothing can be more clear 
and indisputable than this. If the names of the 
agents and acts were not used in their literal sense, 
there would be no means of knowing what the 
event is that is foreshown by the prediction, nor 
what being is to be the agent or subject of it. If 
Christ is not the being whose act is meant by his 
coming, who is that being f If the event denoted 
by his coming is not a real personal coming, visible 
and conspicuous, like the lightning that flashes from 
one side of the firmament to the other, what is the 
event that his coming is used to foreshow? ~No 
satisfactory answer can ever be given to these 
questions. 

Yet many writers, wholly unaware of this great 
law of the figure, speak of the expression as though it 
were metaphorical, or ascribe to it some other wholly 



182 RESULTS OF THE 

foreign nature, and construe it as a prediction of the 
march of the Romans into Judea to the siege and 
destruction of Jerusalem nearly eighteen hundred 
years ago. No construction could involve a grosser 
violation of the figure and the passage. It is impos- 
sible, from the nature of the comparison, that the 
Son of Man's coming can denote anything else than 
his literal personal coming ; precisely as it is impos- 
sible that the lightning's flashing from the east unto 
the west can denote anything but the flashing of 
that element in that manner. Christ's coming, 
moreover, in the dazzling pomp of deity, darting 
avenging tires from his chariot wheels, is to present 
a vivid resemblance in conspicuousness, though it is 
immeasurably to transcend it, to a shaft of light- 
ning that leaps from a midnight cloud, and darting 
to the west fills the whole scene for a moment with 
a noonday effulgence ; but no such resemblance is 
presented to it by a slow marching army of Romans, 
who could have no general visibility like a brilliant 
object in the heavens, but must have been abso- 
lutely invisible to all who were not in their imme- 
diate vicinity. A just understanding of the figure 
would have withheld these writers from such a 
misconstruction of it, and such a violation of the 
prophecy. 

A strict adherence to the laws of figures in the 



LAW J OF FIGURES. 183 

interpretation of the Scriptures will set aside a vast 
number of similar misconstructions that are now 
current, and restore the perverted passages to their 
true sense. 



184 RESULTS OF THE 



CHAPTEK XV. 

THE RESULTS OF THE LAWS OF FIGURES IN THE 
INTERPRETATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

Another, though less frequent error, is the 
assumption, as shown chapter XI., that narrative, or 
commemorative portions of the sacred volume, in 
which the rhetorical figures are employed in the 
usual manner, are nevertheless themselves taken in 
the whole as narratives, tropical ; and that the 
events therefore which they relate or describe are 
not those which they actually denote ; but that they 
are used representatively, and signify a different and 
analogous class. The effect is, accordingly, on a 
mere fanciful and arbitrary assumption, to set aside 
the true meaning of such passages, and force on 
them a foreign and false sense. It is most unjusti- 
fiable, therefore, and dangerous, as it enables the 
interpreter, under the pretence of a law of language, 
to reject the revelation God has made in any portion 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 185 

of the Scriptures, and substitute a lawless dream of 
his fancy in its place. 

There is an example of this in the interpre- 
tation many writers put on the xviiith Psalm, in 
which David commemorates a personal visible 
interposition of Jehovah, to deliver him from 
the hands of his enemies who were plotting his 
assassination. Thus Professor Stuart treats that 
representation of the appearance of the Almighty in 
his cloudy chariot, and extrication of the psalmist 
from danger, as a mere drapery of thoughts, or 
occurrences of a wholly different kind, fabricated by 
the writer, for the purpose of giving dignity and 
beauty to the poem. What those thoughts or events 
were, however, he does not show ; nor could he have 
presented any statement of them, had he attempted 
it, that would have possessed the least air of pro- 
bability ; for if, as he asserts, the acts of God which 
are gratefully and adoringly commemorated are 
purely fictitious and representative, the gratitude 
and adoration which they are exhibited as exciting 
must, on the same principle, be held to be repre- 
sentative also ; and the whole is turned into an 
inexplicable enigma ; for what merely resembling 
sentiment and act can gratitude and adoration be 
supposed to represent ? It is rather, indeed, a 
trifling and impious farce ; for why should acts be 



186 RESULTS OF THE 

fabricated as grounds of adoration, unless it be that 
none that are real can properly excite those affec- 
tions, and be made the theme of commemoration ? 
In setting aside what the hymn actually comme- 
morates, he thus rejects its whole meaning, and 
exhibits it as a mere empty and heartless pageant. 

Other writers have also treated the interposition 
of God celebrated in that Psalm as representative of 
a different act. Jerome regarded it as prophetic, 
instead of commemorative, and as having had its 
accomplishment chiefly in the miraculous events 
that attended Christ's death and resurrection. He 
says: Totus hie Psalmus sub persona David ad 
Christum pertinet. "The whole Psalm under the 
person of David refers to Christ." He accordingly 
treats all the elements of the theophany, v. 6-16, as 
representative. The trembling of the earth pre- 
figured Christ's passion. The mountains symbolized 
the proud, and their foundations demons; the fire 
denoted compunction; the water tears; and the 
coals of fire man's fallen nature illuminated at 
Christ's coming through baptism or repentance. 
Whether he supposed the Psalmist had himself 
been the subject of such a miraculous deliverance 
as he describes, he does not indicate. Several com- 
mentators also of the seventeenth century referred 
the Psalm to Christ. 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 187 

Later writers, however, as Rosenmiiller, Heng- 
stenberg, Maurer, and Alexander, regard the inter- 
vention of Jehovah, which the Psalmist depicts, as 
supposititious or conceptional merely, and designed 
simply to represent in an emphatic and impressive 
form the deliverances God had wrought for him by 
his providence ; but hold that it is figurative instead 
of symbolical. Thus, in regard to the question 
whether the description of the tempest is to be 
understood figuratively or historically, Kosenmiiller 
says : " It seems to be a poetic image which simply 
indicates that God was angry at the enemies of 
David, and moved by his prayers against them, 
delivered him — while supplicating — in a wonderful 
and glorious manner. Maurer also represents it as an 
elduXoTrotw^ a mere piece of imagery, exhibiting God 
as appearing at David's supplication, amidst light- 
ning, and thunders, and an earthquake, and means 
nothing more than simply that God aided David. 

None of these writers, however, give an adequate 
reason for their view of the passage. If correct, it 
should be verified by an analysis of the language, 
identification of the figures which it involves, and 
demonstration from their nature, that the descent of 
Jehovah which it describes, was merely tropical, not 
real. If it is figurative, the figure by which it is 
expressed should be designated, and the mode in 



188 RESULTS OF THE 

which it fills its office defined and demonstrated. If 
no such figure can be pointed out in it, or shown to 
exist, their supposition must be mistaken. 

The reason given by Rosenmiiller, for regarding it 
as tropical, is that David employed the image of a 
tempest in imploring Jehovah (Psalm cxliv. 5) to 
interpose for his deliverance ; and that the other 
Hebrew poets described him, when angry and about 
to overthrow the enemies of his people, as shaking 
the earth and smiting the whole world with tempests 
and thunderbolts (Is. xxix. 6 ; Nahum i. ; Hab. iii. ; 
Haggai ii. 21 ; Zech. ix. 14, xiv. 3). But he there 
assumes what he should have proved, that these 
passages, all of which but the first are prophetic, are 
not to be literally accomplished. Psalm cxliv. 
5-7, is a prayer, and so far from bearing any marks 
of a figure, is properly to be regarded as founded on 
the fact that God had, at the time it was composed, 
already interposed in that miraculous manner, as 
commemorated in Psalm xviii., and granted him 
such a deliverance. Had the Most High actually 
descended in such a form, and rescued him from 
impending danger, it certainly would have been 
most natural and appropriate when again environed 
by enemies, that he should ask another interposition 
in the same form. But it would have been wholly 
unnatural, had God never appeared for his aid in 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 189 

such an extraordinary mode. The pious* now, though 
often receiving extraordinary deliverances, never 
ask miraculous interventions for their extrication 
from the power of enemies, or relief from alarming 
dangers. It would be regarded as indicating both 
very mistaken views of his government, and a fana- 
tical spirit. And if God had wrought no miracles 
for David's relief and protection, but had granted 
him only the ordinary aids of his providence, which 
his children generally enjoy, why would it not have 
been as inappropriate and unnatural in him to have 
prayed for an intervention in such a visible form 
for his extrication from the evil that threatened 
him ? 

The prayer, then (Ps. cxliv. 5-7), may justly be 
considered as a proof that God had already actually 
granted him a deliverance like that which he there 
invokes, and that the interposition, therefore, which 
he commemorates (Ps. xviii. 6-16), was a real and 
visible theophany, such as he represents. It was no 
more miraculous and wonderful than the inspiration 
which he enjoyed, and the peculiar communications 
and promises that were made to him. It was no 
more extraordinary than the visible manifestations 
of himself which God granted to Abraham, Moses, 
Joshua, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Elijah, and is as credible 
therefore as they are. Of the other passages to 



190 RESULTS OF THE 

which Rosenmiiller refers, (Nahum i. 1-6), is descrip- 
tive of the mode in which God was accustomed to 
interpose for the deliverance of his people, and the 
communication and enforcement of his will, as in 
Egypt, at the Red Sea, and at Sinai ; and instead 
of disproving, therefore, shows that it was in har- 
mony with the administration he was exercising, 
that he should have interposed in that miraculous 
manner three hundred years before for the extrica- 
tion of David from his enemies. On the other hand, 
Is. xxix. 6, Habak. iii., Hag. ii. 21, and Zech. ix. 13 
-16, and xiv. 1-9, are predictions of God's visible 
interposition for the deliverance of the Israelites at 
their last great conflict at the time of their restora- 
tion, that are accordingly to have a literal accom- 
plishment. There not only is no ground whatever 
for the supposition that they are figurative, but it is 
inconsistent with their nature. Instead of an obstacle, 
therefore, they present an additional reason for 
regarding the interposition described (Ps. xviii.) as 
an actual theophany. 

The ground on which Hengstenberg regards that 
part of the Psalm as tropical, is, in like manner, not 
that there are any specific figures in it which show 
by their nature that the theophany which it cele- 
brates was merely conceptional, but only that the 
song is represented in the title to have been com- 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 191 

posed after David had been delivered from all his 
enemies. That it was not written, however, till near 
the close of his life, when his conflicts were over, is 
no proof that the deliverances which it commemo- 
rates were not such as he represents them, any more 
than the fact that his deliverance from Saul took 
place many years before the Psalm was written, 
proves that his description of it is figurative instead 
of literal. Neither he nor the other writers to whom 
we have referred, seem to have suspected that there 
are any obstacles in the language itself to the suppo- 
sition that it is tropical ; and were led, perhaps, in 
a measure to regard it as such, by a feeling that it 
was too extraordinary to be probable that God had 
interposed in such a manner to rescue the Psalmist 
from danger. 

The question whether it is figurative or not, and, 
especially, whether it is to be regarded as figurative 
simply on account of the nature of the interposition 
which it ascribes to God, is one of great moment ; 
as if the mere fact that it was a visible appearance 
in the clouds, with lightnings, thunders, and hail, 
irrespective of the language in which it is described, 
is to be taken as a proof that it is figurative, it will 
result that all the other similar manifestations which 
are narrated or predicted in the Scriptures must also 
be regarded as merely tropical; as to our first 



192 RESULTS OF THE 

parents in Eden, to Abraham, to Jacob, to Moses on- 
Mount ELoreb, to the Israelites at Sinai, to Joshua, 
to Isaiah, Elijah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and John v and no 
evidence whatever be left that he has ever revealed 
himself to the senses of any of our race. All those 
and other narratives of the personal revelation of 
himself are converted into myths or fictions. And 
if his visible presence was the mere work of the 
prophet's fancy, the communications he is repre- 
sented to have made must naturally be regarded as 
imaginary also. If it is maintained that God did 
not in fact manifest himself to their senses, how can 
it be held that that which is related by the prophets 
to have been heard by them in his visible presence, 
is to be regarded as any the less the work of their 
imaginations? The question whether God has in 
fact inade any such communications to men as the 
Scriptures represent, may thus fairly be considered 
as turning on the question whether the visible 
revelations of himself which they record, like that 
described (Ps. xviii.), were real, or the mere product 
of the prophet's fancy. 

The question, however, whether the description 
of David's deliverance is figurative or not, is not to 
be determined by the nature of the interposition by 
which it is represented to have been accomplished, 
but by the language in which it is depicted. I 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 193 

propose, therefore, to try it by that test, and to show 
that that which it describes was a reality, not a 
fiction. In order to this I will point out the 
several figures that occur in the Psalm, and explain 
them by their laws. 

1, 2. Metonymies. "To the chief musician, by 
David the servant of Jehovah, who spake unto 
Jehovah the words of this song, in the day Jehovah 
freed him from the hand of all his foes, and from 
the hand of Saul," v. 1. The hand of his foes is 
used here by metonymy for their power which was 
exerted by their hand, and the hand of Saul, for his 
power. The denomination of David the servant of 
Jehovah, indicates that he sustained a peculiar rela- 
tion to him and filled an important office towards 
his chosen people, and may be considered as imply- 
ing that that sacred and extraordinary relation was 
the occasion of God's interposing in the majestic 
manner he celebrates, to rescue him from the 
enemies that were conspiring against his life. It 
was as the predestined monarch of Israel and pro- 
genitor of the Messiah that God descended in a 
whirlwind to deliver him from the grasp of his foes, 
and it is as such that he celebrates that wonderful 
act. That his extrication from the hand of Saul is 
mentioned, in addition to his deliverance from his 
other enemies, is probably because it was that extri- 

9 



194 RESULTS OF THE 

cation that was wrought by the visible interposition 
of the Most High. 

3. Metonymy of the effect for the cause. " And 
said, I will love thee, Jehovah, my strength," v. 2. 
Strength is here put for the source or giver of 
strength. The effect of God's extraordinary deal- 
ings was to fill his heart with love, and to impress 
him with the feeling that he should continue to 
cherish it. 

4, 5. Metaphors in the use of rock and fortress. 
" Jehovah is my rock and my fortress and my deli- 
verer," v. 2. This imagery is suggested by the 
nature of the protection he had enjoyed. Had he 
been celebrating a preservation from pestilence or 
famine, it would have been unsuited to the species 
of danger from which he was shielded ; but it is 
appropriate in the highest degree to indicate his 
preservation from the armed foes who had sought 
to take his life. God had been to him, what an 
inaccessible rock and an impregnable fortress are to 
one whom they protect from the approach of his 
foes. What an emphatic description of the perfect 
safety he had enjoyed, while apparently exposed 
to the greatest perils ! 

6, 7, 8, 9. Metaphors in the use of rock, and 
shield, horn, and high place. " My God is my 
rock ; I will trust in him ; my shield, and the horn 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 195 

of my salvation, my height," or high place, v. 2. 
The word here translated rock is used to denote, not 
an impregnable barrier, but an unchangeable sup- 
port. The Psalmist had experienced God's unvary- 
ing faithfulness, through the vicissitudes of a long 
life ; and trusted in him as unalterable in his attri- 
butes and purposes. He had been to him as a shield, 
also, that intercepted all the weapons that were 
aimed at him ; and as a horn like that of a powerful 
animal by which assailants are repelled ; and as a 
height or elevated place, in which, after having 
escaped his enemies, he had reposed in safety. A 
horn of salvation, is a horn that saves, by the 
repulse of an antagonist. The relation in which 
God is exhibited as a defender and deliverer in these 
several figures, varies according to the object that is 
used for exemplification ; as an inaccessible cliff, an 
impregnable fortress, a rock that cannot be under- 
mined, a shield that intercepts the arrows that are 
shot, and the blows that are aimed at him who 
holds it, a horn that rebuts and drives back assail- 
ants, and a lofty height which yields him a safe 
station after the battle is over. What a towering 
sense these images bespeak of the agency of God in 
his protection, and of the absolute security he had 
enjoyed at the periods of his greatest seeming 
hazard ! He ascribes his deliverance wholly to God. 



196 RESULTS OF THE 

Though he had "been watchful, fertile in expedients, 
and brave, he makes no allusion to the exertions he 
had made to preserve himself. It was owing to God 
altogether that success at any time attended those 
efforts, but it was not through them that he was 
saved, but a direct and visible interposition of the 
Most High. Had it not been for that intervention, 
he would have perished by his enemies. 

Under this sense of the past, the Psalmist 
expresses his purpose to continue to invoke God, 
and his assurance that he should still be preserved 
by him. " I will call upon Jehovah, who is to be 
praised, and from my enemies I shall be saved," 
v. 3. Such is the disposition to supplicate his aid, 
and to rely on him for support and protection, with 
which their experience of his mercy ever inspires 
his children. It was raised in the Psalmist to an 
extraordinary strength by the greatness and direct- 
ness of the deliverances he had received. After 
indicating in this beautiful manner the relations in 
which he contemplated God as his preserver, and 
expressing the feelings and purposes with which it 
inspired him, he proceeds to describe one of the 
deliverances God had wrought for him. 

10,11,12,13. Hypocatastases. "The cords of 
death compassed me about, and the waters of destruc- 
tion frightened me ; the cords of hades surrounded 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 197 

me ; the snares of death met me," v. 5. By the cords 
of death are not meant cords with which death 
binds, nor in which it catches its victims, and brings 
them within its reach ; as death employs no such 
means to obtain those on whom it exerts its power. 
Its office is conceived to lie exclusively in killing, 
not in hunting those whom it is to kill. Its cords, 
therefore, are cords that make death sure to those 
who become entangled in them. The waters of 
destruction are waters or torrents that sweep those 
to destruction who are involved in them. By some 
expositors they are rendered the waters of worth- 
lessness. If that is the true sense, a torrent is 
probably meant of polluted water, charged with 
carcases and every species of filth, such as in a 
deluging rain rushed down the valley of the son of 
Hinnom, and that terrified him by a prospect of 
being swept away and consigned to a burial amidst 
such disgusting objects. The other, however, is 
more probably the meaning. The cords of hades or 
the grave are cords which bind for the grave all 
who become involved in them ; not cords with 
which the grave itself binds its victims, as the grave 
is not an agent ; and those who are in its domains 
do not need to be bound to prevent their escape. 
The snares of death are in like manner snares that 
make their death certain who are entangled in 



198 "RESULTS OF THE 

them. And these instruments of destruction and 
forms of danger are put by substitution for others 
of an analogous kind with which he was environed 
by his enemies. This is shown y. 17, in which he 
explains that it was from his strong enemy, and 
from haters that were too powerful for him, that 
God delivered him on this occasion. And these 
substitutes indicate doubtless the nature of the 
measures that were devised for his destruction. It 
was to be by stratagem. A scheme was laid to 
surround him in some position from which it was 
presumed he could not escape. A band of lawless 
soldiers were to rush on him like a resistless torrent, 
and assassinate him. Arrangements were made for 
his immediate burial, also, not improbably, that his 
death might not be at once known. The snares of 
death were set in his way also, or measures devised 
for seizing him if he attempted to escape by flight. 
These representatives are suited to indicate a device 
of that sort. They bespeak a plot to murder 
him ; not a purpose to destroy him in an open 
battle. 

The occasion to which he refers, it may be pre- 
sumed, was that mentioned 1 Samuel xix. 11, 12, 
when Saul sent persons in the night to watch his 
house and slay him on his going out in the morning. 
They were probably stationed round his dwelling to 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 199 

intercept him, if he attempted to fly ; and it was 
doubtless at the moment when Michal let him 
down from the window, that the tempest burst on 
the place, the Almighty enthroned in the clouds 
revealed himself to him, and assured him of deliver- 
ance ; while the flashing lightning, the crashing 
thunder, and the storm of hail and rain, occupied 
the attention of the assassins, and driving them from 
their stations, allowed him to elude them and fly. 
This is confirmed, moreover, by the consideration 
that the tempest, like his flight, was in the night, as 
is indicated by the darkness which at intervals pre- 
vailed. 

It is a further corroboration of it also that 
it accounts for his escape without attracting the 
notice of the assassins, and for the absence from the 
narrative of any intimation that Saul reproached 
them for remissness. How, when environed by 
guards set expressly to watch and intercept him, 
could he have eluded their notice, and passed out 
of their circle, unless some such extraordinary cause 
had distracted their attention, or driven them from 
the scene ? And unless there was some such 
adequate reason, how is it to be explained that Saul 
seems not to have reprimanded them for not accom- 
plishing their errand? The supposition that that 
was the occasion to which he refers, is thus in har- 



200 RESULTS OF THE 

mony with all the particulars of the narrative the 
sacred historian has given of it.* 

The Psalmist next states the thoughts and feel- 
ings to which the sense of these dangers prompted 
him. 

14. Metaphor, in the use of temple. "In my 
distress I will invoke Jehovah, and to my God will 
cry ; He will hear from his temple my voice, and 
my cry before him will enter into his ears," v. 6. 
The heavens are called his temple or palace, because 
it is there that he reigns, and receives the homage 

* " Saul also sent messengers unto David's house, to watch him, 
and to slay him in the morning : and Michal, David's wife, told 
him, saying, If thou save not thy life to-night, to-morrow thou shalt 
be slain. So Michal let David down through a window : and he 
went, and fled, and escaped. And Michal took an image and laid 
it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster, and 
covered it with a cloth. And when Saul sent messengers to take 
David, she said, He is sick. And Saul sent the messengers again to 
see David, saying, Bring him to me in the bed, that I may slay 
him. And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was 
an image in the bed, with a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster. 
And Saul said unto Michal, Why hast thou deceived me so, and 
sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped ? And Michal answered 
Saul, He said unto me, Let me go ; why should I kill thee ?" Sam, 
xix. 11-17. It is apparent from this, that the assassins had with 
drawn from David's house, and without suspecting his escape. 
That would have been natural if such a storm had occurred ; but 
how is it to be explained on any other supposition ? 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 201 

of his subjects. " Jehovah is in his holy temple, 
Jehovah, in heaven is his throne" (Ps. xi. 4). He 
here depicts the thoughts and emotions which his 
danger excited, as though they were present again. 
He did not rely on his own exertions to save him- 
self, but instantly cried to God, and with an assur- 
ance that he would hear him. 

"Then did the earth shake and quake, and the 
foundations of the mountains trembled and were 
shaken, because he was angry," v. 7. David had 
but uttered his supplication, when an earthquake 
announced to him that Jehovah had heard his cry, 
and was to interpose in anger to repel his enemies. 
This language is not tropical — as the writers to 
whom we have referred suppose — but literal. The 
verbs are not used by a metaphor, as in that figure 
the nominative of the affirmation is always used 
literally, and is the subject of that which the figure 
expresses. If these verbs then are supposed to be 
used metaphorically, the earth and mountains must 
still be the subjects of that which their trembling 
and quaking denotes ; not as those critics suppose, 
some other objects that bear to them an analogy. 
The agitations, moreover, which those verbs ascribe 
to the earth and mountains, are compatible with 
their nature, and often actually take place. They 
cannot be used therefore by a metaphor ; as in that 

9* 



202 RESULTS OF THE 

figure, that which is affirmed, is never literally true 
of the subject to which it is applied, but only some- 
thing of a resembling nature ; as when man is deno- 
minated a lion, to denote his courage or nobleness ; 
and God is called a shield, to signify that he acts as 
the protector of his people. But there is no such 
transference of the verbs shake, quake, and tremble, 
to the earth and mountains from a different class of 
objects to which they are exclusively applicable in 
their literal sense. They are as literally applicable 
to the earth and hills, as to any other objects in the 
material world. The earth and mountains must of 
necessity, therefore, be taken as the subjects of that 
which those verbs denote ; and they must be inter- 
preted as signifying, according to their literal mean- 
ing, a shaking of the earth, and trembling of the 
foundations of the hills. 

Nor are the earth and mountains used by hypo- 
catastasis, as representatives of analogous objects. 
There are no analogous objects of which they can 
be supposed to be substitutes. They cannot be 
representatives of Saul and his assassin soldiers. An 
earthquake is an appropriate symbol of a political 
convulsion. But there was no such convulsion of 
the Israelitish kingdom at that epoch. The agitation 
of the earth was consequential on David's prayer, 
and was a signal of God's anger at the plot against 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 

his life ; but Saul was not agitated in consequence 
of that prayer, nor was he aware of it, or of God's 
anger. The earth and mountains then, and their 
quaking and trembling are not used as representa- 
tives of a different class of objects and events. But 
there is no other figure that can be supposed to exist 
in the passage. There is no comparison, metonymy, 
synecdoche, or personification in it. All the objects 
mentioned in it are exhibited according to their real 
and ordinary nature. It must be taken, therefore, 
as absolutely literal ; and the shaking and trembling 
which it ascribes to the earth as a literal earth- 
quake. And this makes it certain that the theo- 
phany which is next described, was a real and 
visible interposition, and of the nature which the 
Psalmist represents. 

15. Metonymy of the heavens or atmosphere, for 
the clouds of the atmosphere. " Then went up 
smoke in his wrath, and fire from his mouth devours. 
Coals are kindled from it. And he bowed the heavens 
and came down, and gloom was under his feet," 
v. 8, 9. He is said to have bowed the heavens or 
sky, to indicate that he caused the clouds occupying 
it, on which he was enthroned, to descend nearer to 
the earth. 

16, 17, 18. Metaphors in the use of rode, flew, and 
wings. " And he rode on a cherub, and flew ; he 



204: RESULTS OF THE 

flew on the wings of the wind," v. 10. The throne 
of Jehovah was sustained doubtless like that on 
which he was seen by Ezekiel, by cherubim. It 
was borne along by the clouds that were beneath it, 
and it is to express that motion that God is said to 
have ridden. He is said also to have flown, to sig- 
nify the rapidity of his descent ; and by an elliptical 
metaphor, the winds are exhibited as having wings 
on which he flew, to indicate again the celerity with 
which the clouds on which he rode rushed forward. 
These figures are in the predicates of the several 
propositions in which they occur. The movement 
accordingly which they are employed to express, 
actually took place, and as it is of Jehovah exclu- 
sively that it is affirmed, it cannot represent any 
other act or event, nor any act or movement of any 
other being. 

19. Metaphor in denominating the clouds his tent. 
" He made darkness his covering ; his tent about 
him, dark waters, thick clouds. From the bright- 
ness before him, his clouds passed, hailstones, and 
coals of fire," v. 11, 12. 

20. Metaphor in denominating the thunder G-od T s 
voice. "Then Jehovah thundered in the heaven: 
and the Highest gave his voice ; hailstones, and 
coals of fire," v. 13. 

21. Metaphor in denominating the lightning 



LAWS OF FIGURES, 205 

arrows. " Then sent lie his arrows and scattered 
them ; and many lightnings and discomfited them." 
v. 14. This indicates that the assassins who were 
watching to intercept David, were terrified and 
driven to flight by the flashes of the tempest. 

u Then were seen the channels of waters, and the 
foundations of the earth discovered at thy rebuke, O 
Jehovah, at the blast of the breath of thy wrath. 
He extends " his hand " from above, he takes me, 
he draws me out of many waters," v. 16. As God 
was visibly present, this act must be regarded as 
real, not representative. On the supposition that 
Jerusalem was the scene of the interposition, the 
channels of waters were the channels of the torrents 
that rushed down the valley of Jehoshaphat, or the 
son of Hinnom, one of which he had to pass in order 
to escape from the city. The glare of effulgence 
that flashed from the tempest, while it terrified his 
enemies, and induced them to fly 9 lighted up the 
vale as he passed the city wall, and enabled him to 
see the flood he was to cross. By the foundations 
of the earth which were discovered or rendered 
visible, are meant doubtless the bottom of the vale 
which was at the base of the mountain on which 
Jerusalem stood, and the hills that rose at its sides. 
They were the feet of the mountains that are said to 
have trembled in the earthquake. Some expositors 



206 RESULTS OF THE 

• 

regard this language as descriptive of a convulsion 
by which a deep fissure of the earth was opened. 
But it merely declares that the channels of the 
waters which — if Jerusalem were the scene — ran on 
the east and west sides of the city, were seen, and 
the lowest ground or base of the hills uncovered by 
the dispersion of the darkness, probably by lightning 
flashes or a flood of effulgence from the throne of 
the Almighty. This is implied in the representation 
that it was at God's " rebuke, at the blast of the 
breath of his wrath " that it took place. That Jeru- 
salem was the scene of this interposition, and 
David's residence, though not certain, is not impro- 
bable. The description answers to the locality, and 
for some reason not explained — perhaps a prophetic 
knowledge that that was to be the capital of his 
kingdom, and a design on that account to make it 
his abode while waiting for the throne, — he had 
carried there the head of Goliah. Saul's residence 
was at Gibeah, six or seven miles north of Jeru- 
salem, and also on a high ridge, at the foot of which 
torrents must have rushed after a violent rain. 

22. Metaphor in denominating God his stay. 
" He delivers me from my strong enemies, and from 
my haters, because they are many. They surprised 
me in the day of my calamity, but Jehovah was my 
stay. And he brought me out into a large place," 



LAWS OF FIGUKES. 207 

v. 16-19. Tlie description thus harmonizes in all 
respects with the supposition that the occasion of 
this extraordinary deliverance was that of his flight 
from the band of assassins Saul had stationed round 
his house. 

Those expositors who regard the passage as figu- 
rative, assume that this visible interposition, and the 
acts by which God distracted and confounded those 
who were watching for David, and conducted him 
through the torrent with which the rain had filled 
the valley he crossed on leaving the place, instead 
of being real, are mere representatives of the various 
acts of providence by which God delivered him 
during the period of Saul's attempts against his life. 
That assumption is, however, altogether untenable. 
In the first place it is founded on the nature of the 
interposition, and not on the language in which it is 
described. But the nature of the act or event is not 
the criterion by which it is to be determined 
whether a passage is figurative or not. Figures are 
properties of language, not of acts or events. They 
are peculiarities of expression, not of agencies or 
phenomena. Besides the assumption that the inter- 
position of the Almighty narrated in the passage 
is figurative, because of the act, implies that all 
other visible interpositions that are recorded in the 
sacred volume are figurative also, and that the com- 



208 RESULTS OF THE 

mands and revelations that are represented to have 
been communicated in those interpositions are like- 
wise figurative, or merely conceptional. The cove- 
nant accordingly with Abraham, the communica- 
tion to Moses at the burning bush, the descent of 
God on Mount Sinai, and announcement of the 
decalogue to the Israelites, the visions of Jehovah 
beheld by Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, John, and others, 
and all the revelations made in those visions must 
be set aside as figurative also, and nearly the whole 
of the prophetic Scriptures thus transformed from 
inspired communications into unauthoritative myths 
or fictitious representations, devised by the writers 
to illustrate some other class of acts or events. Why 
should this interposition which is expressly comme- 
morated by the Psalmist as an actual occurrence, 
any more than they, be on account of its nature 
regarded as a fiction designed to exemplify some- 
thing else ? The fact then that that assumption leads 
to such consequences, is a sufficient proof that it is 
not only altogether groundless, but a gross violation 
of the passage. 

Next. Such a visible theophany and exertion of 
acts, is not adapted to represent the acts of provi- 
dence by which he at other times preserved the 
Psalmist from the machinations of Saul. A visible 
theophany is not a proper representative of an 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 209 

invisible presence. Yisible acts of such immeasu- 
rable awfulness and terror are not appropriate repre- 
sentatives of the stated operations of the natural 
world, or action of second causes. The prevention 
of assassins from taking the Psalmist's life by an 
earthquake and tempest of lightning and hail, is not 
a suitable emblem of a defeat of their plots by the 
ordinary events of providence. The one is miracu- 
lous, the other is not. God is the immediate and 
visible author of the one ; men in the ordinary 
course of their agency may be the occasions of the 
other. 

Thirdly. The several separate figures that occur 
in the passage show that the whole does not, as 
those writers imagine, constitute a single figure. 
There are seven metaphors in v. 10-14, and God in 
each instance exerted the act, or produced the effect 
that is expressed by the figure. It is he that rode 
the storm cloud, flew on it and on the wings of the 
wind, made the clouds his tent, caused the thunder 
which is called his voice, and shot the lightning 
shafts that are denominated his arrows. But it is 
the law of the metaphor, that the agent who exerts 
the act which is used by the figure, is the agent also 
of the act which the figure is employed to signify. 
He who is said to have shot his arrows, is the being 
who shot the lightning shafts, which by a metaphor 



210 RESULTS OF THE 

are called his arrows. He who gave his voice, and 
hailstones and coals of fire, is the being who caused 
the thunder which is signified by his voice, and the 
hail and coals that accompanied it. Jehovah then, 
it is certain, exerted the acts that are expressed by 
those figures, and on the occasion and in the circum- 
stances in which he is said to have exerted them ; 
for his name and all that is descriptive of him in the 
nominative of the figures is literal : precisely as in 
the metaphors with which the Psalm commences, 
" My God is my rock, my shield, and the horn of 
my salvation," his name is used literally, and he is 
the sole subject of the afiirmations. He was visibly 
enthroned then in the clouds when he exerted them, 
and beheld by the Psalmist ; and therefore the 
interposition described in the passage was real, and 
not imaginative or conceptional. No more absolute 
demonstration than this can be furnished by lan- 
guage that such was the fact. The description is so 
wrought, that it is not in the power of human 
ingenuity to erase from it the proofs formed by these 
figures that the interposition it commemorates was 
real, and the acts and appearances such as the lan- 
guage describes. 

The Psalmist now proceeds to indicate the reasons 
that God wrought for him this extraordinary deli- 
verance. 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 211 

23. Hypocatastasis. " He rescued me, because 
he delighted in me. Jehovah rewards me accord- 
ing to my rectitude ; according to the cleanness of 
my hands he recompenses me," v. 19, 20. The 
cleanness of his hands is put for his innocence of the 
guilt of murder, with a reference undoubtedly to 
Saul. Blood stains on the hands are appropriate 
symbols of the guilt of murder ; and purity of the 
hands from those stains, of freedom from that guilt. 
He had been regarded by Saul as his enemy, and 
suspected of aiming at his life. But the suspicion 
was groundless and unjust, as David afterwards 
proved, by abstaining from slaying him when in his 
power (1 Sam. xxiv). He regarded his person as 
sacred as the Lord's anointed, and neither attempted 
to take his life, nor to excite his subjects to conspire 
against him, or to revolt from his rule. It was to 
this unspotted rectitude and fidelity to Saul, as 
invested by God with his kingly office, undoubtedly, 
that the Psalmist refers ; not, as Hengstenberg and 
others suppose, to his righteousness, or piety gene- 
rally. Had he conspired against Saul's life, or 
endeavored to overturn his government, God would 
not have interposed to save him from what would 
then have been the just punishment of a great 
crime. The Psalmist is to be regarded accordingly 
as mentioning this ground of his intervention, not in 



212 RESULTS OF THE 

commendation of himself, but for the purpose of 
vindicating God. The import of his language is, 
that God rescued him because he approved of his 
conduct in respect to Saul. He treated him as 
guiltless of the malicious wishes and designs of 
which the king had suspected and accused him. He 
indicates in the protestation that follows, that had 
he taken or sought Saul's life, it would have been an 
act of open revolt from God. 

24, 25. Hypocatastases. " For I have kept the 
ways of Jehovah, and have not apostatized from my 
God: For all his judgments are before me, and his 
commandments I have not put away from me," v. 
21, 22. There is an analogy between a pathway, 
and a law which prescribes a course of conduct; 
and between walking in a path, and observing the 
injunction of a law. "Ways of Jehovah are here put 
for his laws, and keeping his ways, for obeying his 
laws. In like manner there is an analogy between 
putting commandments out of one's presence, and 
disregarding their injunctions ; and the one is here 
put as a representative of the other. 

26. Hypocatastasis. "And I was blameless 
towards him, and withheld myself from mine 
iniquity ; and Jehovah requited me according to my 
rectitude, according to the cleanness of my hands 
before his eyes," v. 23, 24. The purity of his hands 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 213 

from blood with which they would have been 
stained had he killed Saul, is here again put for his 
innocence of that crime. 

27. Hypocatastasis. " "With the kind thou wilt 
show thyself kind ; with the upright, thou wilt show 
thyself upright ; with the pure thou wilt show thy- 
self pure ; and with the perverse thou wilt show 
thyself perverse ; For thou wilt save the afflicted 
people, and the lofty eyes thou wilt bring down," v. 
25, 26, 27. To bring down the lofty eyes, is used to 
denote the humiliation of the mind. 

The Psalmist now proceeds to commemorate the 
other deliverances God had wrought for him. 

28, 29. Hypocatastases. " For thou lightest my 
lamp ; Jehovah, my God, enlightens my darkness," 
v. 28. Lighting his lamp and enlightening his 
darkness are put for analogous aids by which he 
was enabled to discern what his condition was, and 
see how to evade the dangers by which he was sur- 
rounded. As with a light in a dark night, by the 
helps which God gave him, he had pursued a path 
that insured his safety. He adds, as exemplifi- 
cations, his running through troops and leaping 
walls. 

30. Hypocatastasis. " For by thee I have run 
through troops ; and by my God I have sprung 
over walls ; — God whose way is perfect," v. 29, 30. 



214 RESULTS OF THE 

God's way is again put for his dealings, or dispen- 
sations. His providence towards the Psalmist was 
marked by perfect righteousness and faithfulness. 
It fulfilled his promises and displayed his perfec- 
tions. 

31, 32. Metaphors. "The word of Jehovah is 
tried. He is a shield to all who trust in him," v. 
30. There is an analogy between the trial of metals 
by fire, and a demonstration by experience of the 
truth of God's promises, and his word is said to be 
tried, to indicate that proof by experiment of its 
verity. The office of a shield is to intercept the 
weapons aimed at the person who holds it, and 
cause them to glance aside or rebound. God is 
called the shield of those who trust him, to signify 
that he protects them in a resembling manner from 
the dangers that threaten them. 

The Psalmist now ascribes to God the endow- 
ments and training by which he was fitted to be a 
successful warrior. 

33. Metaphor. " For who is God save Jehovah ; 
and who is a rock besides our God ?" v. 31. God is 
here again exhibited as a rock and the only rock, to 
signify his unchangeableness as the support of his 
people. 

34. Metaphor. " The Almighty girding me with 
strength, and who has made my way perfect," v. 32. 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 215 

To gird, was to bind the dress so as to render it 
compatible with freedom and energy of action. 
To gird the Psalmist with strength, was to place 
him in a condition that, like a direct gift of power, 
made it practicable to him to act with extraordinary 
ease and effect in contending with his foes. 

35. Hypocatastasis : in the substitution of way 
for the conditions or circumstances in which God 
had placed him. The Almighty had made his way 
— the course in which he had been led — perfect. It 
was adapted to his safety and success, and verified 
God's promises. 

36. Comparison. " Making my feet like hinds'," 
v. 33, in swiftness and agility. 

37. Hypocatastasis. " And placing me on my 
heights," v. 33, the lofty or fortified ridges or cliffs 
from which he could watch the movements and 
repel the assaults of his enemies. His being 
placed on those heights, is used to represent his 
being put in positions that were favorable both to 
his assailing his foes, and defending himself from 
their attacks. 

38. Hypocatastasis. " Teaching my hands to war, 
and my arms have bent a bow of brass," v. 34. 
Teaching his hands, is put for his being placed in 
conditions that led him to acquire skill. He was 
trained by his circumstances, which were of God's 



216 RESULTS OF THE 

appointment, to the expert use of his arms. He was 
endowed, also, with superior strength, as was shown 
by his use of a brazen bow. He had not simply 
bent it once, the implication is, but it was the bow 
he was accustomed to use. 

39, 40, 41. Hypocatastases. " And givest me the 
shield of thy salvation, and thy right hand holds me 
up, and thy condescension makes me great," v. 35. 
The gift of a shield is put for the bestowment of 
analogous means that secured his safety from the 
weapons of his assailants ; holding him up with the 
hand, is put for resembling aids of providence by 
which God sustained him ; and making him great 
for making him powerful and renowned. 

42. Hypocatastasis. "Thou enlargest my steps 
under me, and my ancles do not fail," v. 36. 
Enlarging his steps, which was enlarging the places 
on which he set his feet, so that his ancles did not 
turn aside, as happens when the feet are set on an 
uneven or narrow surface, is put for analogous 
arrangements of providence by which his course was 
rendered easy and secure. 

Here is thus in v. 31-36, a beautiful enumeration 
of the natural gifts and providential appointments 
by which God had fitted him to be a successful 
warrior. He had endowed him with strength, 
agility, and fleetness. He had disciplined him to 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 217 

skill in the use of arms. " He had placed him in 
conditions in which he could act with freedom and 
promptitude. He had set him on the high places 
from which he could observe the movements of his 
enemies and repel their attacks. He had been as a 
shield to him in times of danger ; and had, in every 
relation, made the condition in which he had been 
placed, favorable to his security and success. All 
these peculiar advantages and favors he recognises 
as the gift of God. He next enumerates the vic- 
tories God had granted him over his enemies. 

43. Hypocatastasis. "I pursue my enemies and 
overtake them, and turn not back until I destroy 
them. I shall smite them, and they cannot rise ; 
they shall fall beneath my feet. And thou hast 
girded me with strength fur the battle ; thou bowest 
my adversaries under me," v. 37-39. As he exhibits 
God as bestowing, at the time when he composed 
the Psalm, the gifts he recounted ; — so he here 
represents him as then giving the victories and still 
to give them, which he had granted in the wars that 
were past. Girding with strength is put for placing 
him in conditions to act with great energy and 
effect. 

44. Hypocatastasis. " And my enemies, thou hast 
given to me their back; and my haters, I will 
clestroy them. They shall call, but there is, no 

10 



218 EESULTS OF THE 

deliverer ; to Jehovah, but he hears them not," v. 
40, 41. Giving him the back of his enemies, which 
is the attitude of flight, is put for causing them to 
flee. Their crying to God for help indicates their 
hopeless defeat, and despair of themselves. They 
cried to him, not for victory, but only for deliver- 
ance from the instant death with which they were 
threatened. 

45, 46. Comparisons. "And I beat them small 
as dust before the wind ; as dirt in the street I 
pour them out," v. 42. His enemies thrown into 
disorder by his onset, instead of a compact host, 
were disorganized, and fled in disarray, like dust 
that is driven by the wind. 

47. Metaphor in the use of pouring his enemies, 
to indicate that he would cast them down and dis- 
regard them as he would pour out the worthless dirt 
of the street. 

After this celebration of the triumphs God had 
given him, he proceeds to commemorate the results 
of his victories, peace, superiority to other nations, 
and the submission to him of foreigners. 

48. Metaphor. "Thou deliverest me from the 
strivings of the people, thou settest me the head of 
the nations ; a people I have not known shall serve 
me," v. 43. Head is used by analogy for chief. 
By the strivings of the people, are probably meant 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 219 

the civil wars that followed the death of Saul, and 
the conspiracy of Absalom. The nations of whom 
he became the head are the nations whom he con- 
quered, and the people that voluntarily s^ aght kis 
alliance. 

49. Metaphor in the use of fade. " At the hear- 
ing of the ear, they will obey me ; fcfe® sons of 
the stranger will feign to me ; the mas of the 
stranger will fade and tremble out o* their close 
places," v. 44, 45. His renown was tG be such that 
some of the neighboring nations were to obey his 
wishes, and make feigned professions of respect for 
him ; and others, impressed with dread of his power, 
were to turn pale and tremble in their fastnesses. 
There is an analogy between the withering of a 
plant or flower, and the effects on the body of 
extreme alarm and dread ; and the verb fade is used 
to indicate that resemblance. 

50. Metaphor. ; ' Jehovah lives, and blessed be 
my rock, and exalted shall be the God of my salva- 
tion," v. 46. God is denominated a rock, to signify 
his unchangeableness, as the Psalmist's support. 

51. Hypocatastasis. To be exalted, is to be ele- 
vated in space. God's being exalted, is put for his 
being regarded by men with higher thoughts, and 
praised in loftier strains. 

52. Hypocatastasis. " The mighty God who gives 



220 RESULTS OF THE 

revenges to rne, and has subdued nations under me ; 
saving me from my enemies ; from my assailants 
thou wilt raise me high ; from the man of violence 
thou wilt deliver me, ; ' v. 47, 48. Kaising him high, 
is put for an analogous elevation of his power and 
fame. 

" Therefore I will thank thee among the nations, 
O Jehovah, and to thy name will sing ; who gives 
great salvation to his king, and does good to his 
anointed, to David and his seed for evermore," v. 
49, 50. 

It is thus clear from the language, that the theo- 
phany which the Psalmist celebrates was a visible 
interposition of the Almighty in the manner he 
represents. The supposition that it is figurative is 
altogether groundless, and inconsistent with the laws 
of philology. There not only is no figure in the 
passage that gives it that character, but there is no 
species of trope known to language that could invest 
it with such an illustrative or representative office ; 
while, on the other hand, the metaphors that occur in 
it render it certain that that part of the description 
which is not metaphorical, is literal, and that the 
Almighty therefore was visibly present throned on a 
tempest, that lightnings flashed, and thunders 
resounded from his cloudy pavilion, coals of fire 
streamed from the altar beneath his throne, and hail 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 221 

from the clouds spread under him, and that the 
assassins being driven off by the terrors of the storm, 
David escaped, and passing down a declivity was 
miraculously borne through a flood that dashed down 
the valley at his feet, which he crossed on his way 
to Ramah. It can no more be supposed to be figu- 
rative, or the mere fiction of the Psalmist, to exem- 
plify a different agency of God towards him in dif- 
ferent conditions, and at different times, than the 
visions of God enthroned above the cherubim beheld 
by Isaiah, Ezekiel, and John, can be held to be the 
mere inventions of those prophets to illustrate some 
other acts of God on different occasions. 

The fact that there is no notice of this theophany 
in the history of David's escape from Saul's agents, 
who were set round his dwelling, 1 Samuel xix., is 
no proof that it did not take place on that occasion, 
any more than the fact that there is no reference in 
Kings or Chronicles to Isaiah's vision of God, chap, 
vi., is evidence that that theophany did not occur, 
and at the period to which Isaiah refers it. It is to 
be presumed that the presence and glory of Jehovah, 
in his interposition to deliver the Psalmist, were 
beheld only by him. Saul's assassins probably 
merely saw and felt the earthquake and the tempest, 
and they may have been felt also and witnessed by 
Saul, and regarded by him as a sufficient reason for 



222 RESULTS OF THE 

the retreat of his agents without accomplishing their 
errand. But if the Almighty were beheld by Saul's 
men as well as by David, the scribe who wrote the 
narrative (1 Sam. xix.), which was open perhaps to 
Saul's inspection, may have been required to exclude 
it from the record. 

It will perhaps be thought to be extremely sin- 
gular that God should have interposed in so majestic 
and wonderful a manner for the deliverance of 
David, when he might with infinite ease have pre- 
served him from his enemies by the ordinary means 
of his providence. 

It was certainly an extraordinary deviation from 
the course he usually pursues with his children. 
But the relations sustained to him by David, and the 
ends that were to be answered by it, were as extra- 
ordinary as was the measure itself. David had 
already been anointed as Saul's successor to the 
throne of Israel, and was to be the first of the line 
of kings that were thereafter to reign over Judah, 
and from whom the Messiah was at length to spring. 
He was to act a most important part in establishing 
the Israelitish kingdom, subduing its foes, removing 
the ark to Jerusalem, and re-establishing the taber- 
nacle service, inditing songs for the Levitical wor- 
ship, and preparing for the erection of a temple. It 
was undoubtedly of great moment that he should be 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 223 

qualified for those extraordinary labors by extraor- 
dinary gifts and aids, and that his knowledge and 
faith should be raised to a certainty and strength 
proportioned to the arduousness of the difficulties he 
was to encounter, and the labor lie was to perform. 
The prophets who had preceded him, Abraham, 
Jacob, Moses, and Joshua, had been prepared for 
the duties to which they were called by such theo- 
phanies, and they were employed also to prepare 
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel for theirs ; and it 
doubtless served this end with David by raising him 
to a realization of God's being and relations to him, 
sense of his greatness, and trust in his faithfulness, 
which he otherwise would not have attained, and 
proved a light that flashed irradiance over all his 
subsequent path. 

Such an emphatic exhibition of God's graciousness 
towards him probably served important ends also in 
respect to his successors, and the nation at large. 
Saul and David were the first of the two classes of 
kings, evil and good, that reigned over Israel ; and 
God's dealings with them exemplified the course ho 
was to pursue towards their successors ; Saul was 
abandoned of God because of his disobedience, and 
his family excluded from the throne, and consigned 
to extermination. David received, because of his 
obedience, the most majestic tokens of God's 



224: RESULTS OF THE 

approval and favor, secured the throne to his pos- 
terity, and obtained the promise that the Messiah 
should descend of his line, and reign for ever on his 
throne. It seems to have been essential to a theo- 
cratic administration over the monarchs and nation, 
that God should make such direct and visible mani- 
festations of his approval of those who were 
obedient. He gave to Solomon, Hezekiah, and 
others, though in a different form, almost equally 
direct and emphatic tokens of his graciousness and 
faithfulness ; while on the other hand, he made to 
those who resembled Saul as immediate and terrible 
demonstrations of his anger. 

His interposition to deliver David, therefore, 
instead of being altogether singular and anomalous, 
was in fact in accordance with the genius of the 
administration he exercised over the Israelitish 
monarchs and people, and was one of a great 
number of majestic manifestations of himself which 
he made to his eminent servants, the patriarchs, 
prophets, and kings. 

The events commemorated in this Psalm exem- 
plify the great characteristics of the administration 
God now exercises ; — the subjection of his people to 
severe trials, and interpositions to deliver them in 
answer to prayer. 

He could have placed David on the throne with- 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 225 

out conducting him through any of the difficulties 
and dangers in which he was involved through a 
long series of years. But instead of exalting him at 
once to the power, splendor, and luxury of an abso- 
lute monarch, he assigned him a life of extreme 
alarm, hazard, and self-denial. He was regarded 
with the utmost jealousy and hatred by Saul, 
accused of conspiring against him, threatened with 
death, forced to flee from the court, wander an 
outlaw in the wildernesses of Palestine, and maintain 
a ceaseless struggle for years to elude his vindictive 
pursuers; and in these circumstances, he was dis- 
ciplined to a sense of his dependence, faith in God, 
submission, prayer, and hope, and thus qualified for 
the peculiar duties and blessings of his subsequent 
life ; and received tokens of God's presence and 
favor that raised him to a feeling of his relations to 
him, a largeness of knowledge, and an energy of 
trust and love, that were proportional, in a measure, 
to the greatness of his trials. 

Inquietudes, misfortunes, and sorrows are in like 
manner assigned to all God's people, that impress 
them with an intimate sense of his dominion over 
them, teach them submission, and inspire them with 
faith and love, and thereby fit them for his service 
and kingdom. To look for prosperity without inter- 
ruption, and happiness without alloy, is as unreason- 
10* 



226 RESULTS OF THE 

able in them now, as it would have been in the 
Psalmist to have expected an elevation to the throne 
without a conflict with his rivals, or a conquest of 
the hostile nations around him, without the toils and 
perils of war. 

There is no other method, perhaps, in which God 
could teach us in so impressive a manner the 
acceptableness to him of prayer for deliverance from 
troubles and sorrows, and his readiness to interpose 
and bestow the blessings that are needed by his 
people; as by leading his servants who enjoyed the 
special guidance of his Spirit, to apply to him for 
protection from the dangers to which they were 
exposed, and relief from the calamities with which 
they were overwhelmed, and granting them deli- 
verances in answer to their prayers. It was not 
simply the natural impulse of Abraham, of Jacob, 
of Moses, of David, and of others to look to him for 
guidance, support, and deliverance in their trials ; 
but they were prompted to it by the Holy Spirit. 
The prayers of Moses and David are to be regarded 
as inspired, and are recorded as exemplifications at 
once of the disposition which the Spirit excites in 
the sanctified, and of the acceptableness to God of 
faith in such circumstances, in his power and gra- 
ciousness> and of supplication for his aid. 

What a beautiful method of sanctioning and 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 227 

encouraging trust and prayer in the most perilous 
conditions! What an effective means of showing 
that his infinite graciousness inclines him to desire 
and hear their cries for salvation, as truly and natu- 
rally as their sufferings and fears prompt them to 
apply to him for relief! 

What is Professor Stuart's theory respecting God's interposition 
celebrated in the Psalm? What is the view entertained by Rosen- 
miiller, Hengstenberg, and others ? What reason for his view does 
Rosenraiiller give ? What is a proper answer to it? Is there not 
as much reason to believe this interposition was real, as that other 
visible manifestations of God that are narrated by the prophets 
were ? What is a proper answer to Hengstenberg's view ? Is there 
any more reason to regard this interposition as merely conceptional, 
than there is to ascribe that character to all the other similar 
manifestations that are recorded in the sacred volume ? Is the 
question one of great moment? 

What are the figures in v. 1 ? What is indicated by the expres- 
sion, servant of Jehovah ? What is the first figure, v. 2 ? By what 
figure are rock and fortress, v. 2, used ? What other figures are 
there in the verse? What is the word rendered rock used to 
denote? Explain the sense in which the several figures are 
employed. What are the figures in v. 5 ? Show how they are 
used. What were the dangers to which the Psalmist was exposed ? 
What historic passage indicates it ? By what figure is temple used, 
v. 6 ? How is it proved that shake and quake, v. 7, are used lite- 
rally? What event do they signify? What is the figure, v. 8, 9? 
What figure is used v. 10 ? What are the words used by it ? What 
is the figure v. 11, 12? What is the figure in v. 13? By what 
figure is arrows used v. 14? Is there any figure v. 16? How is it 
proved that there is not? What are the facts, then, which the 



228 RESULTS OF THE 

verse narrates ? What figure is used v. 1*7-19 ? What view of this 
narrative do those expositors entertain who regard it as figurative ? 
What is the first proof that they are wrong ? What is the next 
proof of their error ? What is the third proof of it ? How many 
metaphors are there v. 10-14? Who is the agent in them? How 
does it appear that the acts related in those verses cannot have 
been acts of any other being than God ; nor any other acts exerted 
by him than those the language directly imports ? What is the 
figure, v. 20 ? What is the analogy on which it is used ? What 
are the figures, v. 21, 22, and how are they used ? What is the 
figure, v. 23, 24? What is the figure, v. 27 ? By what figure is 
way used, v. 30 ? What other figures are there, v. 30 ? What is 
the figure, v. 31 ? What is the first figure, v. 32 ? What is the 
second figure, v. 32 ? What is the first figure, v. 33 ? What does 
the comparison illustrate ? By what figure is placing on heights, 
v. 33, used ? What is the figure, v. 34 ? What figures are there in 
v. 35, and how many ? What figure is there, v. 36 ? What is it 
that is celebrated, v. 31-36 ? What figure occurs, v. 37-39 I What 
is celebrated in those verses ? What is the figure, v. 40, 41 ? How is it 
used ? What are the first two figures, v. 42 ? What is the next ? 
What is celebrated in the verses that follow ? What is the figure, 
v. 43 ? Which is the word used by it ? What word is used by a 
figure, v. 44, 45 ? Why is it used by a metaphor ? What word is 
used by the first figure, v. 46 ? Why is it used S What other 
figure is there in the verse ? What is the figure, v. 47, 48 ? Is it 
clear, then, from the law of figures, that the interposition cele- 
brated in the Psalm was really such as the language describes ? Is 
the omission of any notice of the event in 1 Samuel xix. any proof 
that no such theophany took place ? Is the extraordinariness of 
the event any proof that it did not really occur ? What is the 
first thing which the events celebrated in the Psalm exemplify ? 
What is the second ? 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 229 



CHAPTEK XVI. 

THE RESULTS OF THE LAWS OF FIGURES IN THE 
INTERPRETATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

Another more frequent and mischievous error, is 
the spvritualization of the Scriptures, and especially 
the prophetic portions of them, by the assumption 
that the persons, objects, acts, and events of which 
they treat are used representatively of others of a 
different class, and without any regard to analogy ; 
and thence that the persons, acts, and events which 
the Vj foreshow are not those mentioned in them, but 
another set belonging to a different sphere. Thus it 
is held, that in the prophecies of the Old Testament, 
Israelites stand for Gentiles, Jerusalem and Zion for 
the church, and the acts and events that are pre- 
dicted of the Israelites for 'acts and events of a dif- 
ferent kind, of which Gentiles are to be the subjects. 
For this extraordinary construction not the slightest 
reason can be given, except a wish to get rid of 



230 KE8ULTS OF THE 

teachings which, though specific and indubitable if 
construed by the established laws of language, are 
at variance with certain favorite theories respecting 
God's purposes, or the measures it becomes him to 
pursue in the government of the world. It is veiled, 
indeed, under the pretext or fancy, that the passages 
which are thus interpreted are figurative y but no 
figure is identified that gives them the meaning 
which the construction ascribes to them ; and no 
such figure exists. The allegory, even, were they 
held to be allegorical, would not invest them with 
such a representative sense. But they are not alle- 
gorical ; 1st, because the allegory is always in its 
descriptive part in the past tense, but these predic- 
tions are altogether in the future ; and, 2d, because 
there is no such resemblance, as the allegory 
requires, between the Israelites, Jerusalem, Zion, the 
return of the Israelites, the rebuilding of Jerusalem 
and the temple, which are held by the spiritualists 
to be representatives, and the Gentile church, and 
the conversion of the Gentiles universally, which they 
are said to represent. In the first place, as the land 
of Israel, Jerusalem, and Zion are in those prophe- 
cies treated according to their nature, as places, and 
the Israelites are exhibited as to return to and 
inhabit them ; if they are taken as representatives 
of the Christian church, then, on the principles of 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 231 

analogy, that church must also be taken as a mere 
place, or combination of places, bearing the same 
relation to the Gentiles who are to enter them, as the 
land of Israel and Jerusalem do to the Israelites 
who are to return to them. Their construction thus 
empties those prophecies of all their spiritual signi- 
ficance which it professes to unfold, and turns them 
into mere announcements that Gentiles are to go to 
a locality or localities that are or have been the 
scene of worship by Gentiles bearing the Christian 
name. In the next place, as the persons whom the 
predictions in question foreshow are to return to 
Palestine and Jerusalem are Israelites exclusively, 
the descendants of the people of that name that 
once inhabited that country ; if their predicted 
return is a mere representative of analogous acts of 
Gentiles, then, on the one hand, the return of 
Gentiles which is foreshown must be a mere return 
to localities or places where Gentiles bearing the 
Christian name had formerly offered worship ; as 
the predicted return of the Israelites is a return of 
that kind ; and, on the other, the Gentiles who are 
to return to those places are not Gentiles promis- 
cuously of all nations and all religions, but only 
such Gentiles as are descendants of Christian Gen- 
tiles who once offered worship in those localities; 
precisely as the Israelites who are exhibited as to 



232 RESULTS OF THE 

return to Palestine are exclusively descendants of 
Israelites who once dwelt in that land. These pre- 
dictions, accordingly, instead of indicating, as the 
spiritualizing interpreters imagine, the conversion 
of the whole Gentile world, are limited, by the 
principle of representation on which they afTect to 
proceed, to the descendants of Gentiles who once 
offered worship as professing Christians in the loca- 
lities to which they are to return, which were to 
their Christian ancestors as places of worship what 
Jerusalem was to the ancient Israelites. In the 
third place ; as the Israelites who are represented 
as to return to the land of their forefathers are 
exhibited as returning from exile in foreign lands, 
where they had long been scattered and oppressed ; 
in order to such a correspondence as the law of 
allegoric representation requires, the Gentiles whom 
their return, it is held, foreshows, must also return 
from dispersion and exile in foreign countries, at a 
distance from the national home of their ancestors. 
Where, then, are such Gentiles to be found, unless 
it be in the colonies that have been planted by the 
European nations on this continent, in India, and in 
the islands of the Pacific and Indian oceans during 
the last three hundred and fifty years ? And are the 
people of this country, who have descended from 
European — British, French, German, Swiss, Italian, 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 233 

Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, and Norwe- 
gian — Christians, who reside on this continent, 
to migrate back to Europe, to the localities in 
which their ancestors once offered their worship? 
That is the prediction couched under these pro- 
phecies undoubtedly, if the principle of interpreta- 
tion is legitimate on which these writers proceed. 
What a beautiful result of their attempt to give 
them a higher spiritual signification than God 
employs them to express ! In the fourth place ; the 
Palestine and Jerusalem to which the Israelites are 
to go back, is Palestine in its desolation, and Jeru- 
salem in ruins. If the parallel is to hold, then, the 
religious places to which the Gentiles are to return 
in the lands whence they have emigrated, are also to 
be in a state of depopulation and ruin. This implies 
that the countries, the cities, and the sites of ancient 
Christian edifices are, when the predicted return 
takes place, to be swept with devastation, and con- 
verted into a waste. What religious motive, then, 
can be supposed to exist for such a return ? Is God 
to be any more accessible in those ancient sites, 
after they have been doomed to depopulation and 
waste by his avenging justice, than in the religious 
edifices of this and other lands, where the descend- 
ants of Europeans reside ? Does any special prero- 
gative attach to the sites of the old cathedrals. 



234 RESULTS OF THE 

abbeys, monasteries, and churches that were debased 
by the superstition of the Catholics for ten or twelve 
centuries, and in thousands of instances are still ; or 
to the religious buildings of Protestants, that in 
them alone acceptable worship can be offered ? Is 
not this implied in the supposition, that the con- 
struction for which these writers contend is legiti- 
mate, and that an imperative motive is to exist for 
such an extraordinary migration back of European 
descendants from this and other lands ? What a 
fiVtering issue of this attempt to spiritualize the 
word of God, and raise the blessings it foreshows to 
a higher nature than he has thought proper to give 
them ! In the fifth place ; the Israelites who are to 
return to their ancient land, are to return, at least 
generally, it is foreshown in several passages, in 
alienation from God, and many of them are to 
perish in the war in which they are thus to be 
involved with the anti-christian powers (Zech. xii.). 
If, then, the parallel is to hold, the Gentiles also 
who, according to the construction of these spiritual- 
ists, are to return to the lands of their ancestors, are 
to return, generally at least, in alienation from God. 
"What conceivable motive, then, is to prompt their 
migration back ? Is it to be superstition, the 
desire of wealth, or the ambition of conquest ? And 
finally, as on the principle on which these spiritual- 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 235 

izers proceed, no Gentiles are to migrate to Europe but 
the descendants of Christian ancestors there, these 
predictions, instead of indicating, as these writers 
imagine, that the whole Gentile world is to be con- 
verted, relate exclusively to the descendants of 
Christian ancestors, and present no intimation what- 
ever that the pagan nations of this continent, the 
isles of the Pacific and Indian oceans, or the pagans 
and Mahomedans of Africa and Asia, are to be 
converted to God ! 

Such is the issue of this boasted method of spiri- 
tualizing the prophecies of the Scriptures! Was 
there ever a more lawless perversion and degrada- 
tion of the word of God? Was there ever a method 
contrived that more effectually emptied it of all its 
true meaning, and reduced it to a level with the 
meanest compositions that have proceeded from the 
pen of wild enthusiasts and ignorant dreamers ? 

Had the writers who pursue this method of inter- 
pretation but made themselves acquainted with the 
laws of figurative and literal language, they would 
have been withheld from thus torturing and defacing 
the Scriptures. No such figure exists in the pro- 
phecies, or is known to human language, as they 
assert and professedly make the basis of their spiri- 
tualizing constructions. There are no figures but 
those which we have enumerated; and they are 



236 RESULTS OF THE 

invariably used, according to their several laws, 
as we have stated them ; and consequently, instead 
of sanctioning the construction of the spiritualizers, 
they show, in the most demonstrative manner, the 
error of their theory, and brand it with disgrace, as 
a monstrous perversion. 

This is exemplified by the interpretation, by the 
laws of figures, of the prophecy of the restoration of 
the Israelites, Isaiah, chapters xi. xii. : 



A DESIGNATION AND EXPOSITION OF THE FIGURES OF 
ISAIAH CHAPTERS XI AND XII 

CHAPTER XL 

The exhibition of a prince of the house of David 
as a shoot from the root of Jesse, with which the 
prediction commences, was suggested probably by 
the figure at the close of the tenth chapter, by which 
the Assyrian monarch and his army are represented 
as the forest of Lebanon. Though in number, 
strength, and magnificence, they were like the trees 
of that mountain, they were to be felled by the 
Almighty at one stroke. On the other hand, though 
the house of David was to be divested of its power, 
and like the stump of a tree that has long been cut 
down, seem on the point of extinction, the great 



LAWS OF FIGUKES. 237 

personage was at length to be born of it who had 
already been predicted as the mighty God, the ever- 
lasting Father, the Prince of Peace, who should re- 
gather the tribes of Israel from their dispersion, 
redeem the world from the curse of sin, and reign 
over it for ever in glory. The prophet first exhibits 
his descent, draws his character, and depicts his 
peculiarities as a king ; and then describes the con- 
dition of the animal world and of mankind under 
his reign ; foreshows the restoration of the Israelites 
and reconciliation of Judah and Ephraim ; and 
finally, chapter XII., recites the song in which they 
are to acknowledge and celebrate God's grace to 
them. 

1, 2, 3, 4. Metaphors in the use of shoot and 
branch for a descendant of Jesse, and stump and 
roots to denote the line of which that individual was 
to be born. " And there shall come forth a shoot, 
or sprout, from the stump of Jesse ; and a branch 
shall grow from his roots," v. 1. The exhibition of 
the family of Jesse as a stump, implies that it was 
to be stripped of its royal prerogatives and reduced 
to ruin, before the time came in which the predic- 
tion was to be accomplished. The same image is 
used, chap. liii. 2. " He shall grow up before him 
as a tender plant ; and as a root out of a dry 
ground." He is denominated the Branch also by 



238 RESULTS OF THE 

several other prophets ; and the same character is 
given by them as by Isaiah, of his reign. " Behold 
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise up 
unto David a righteous Branch, and a king shall 
reign and prosper, and shall execute justice and 
judgment in the earth. In his days Judah shall be 
saved, and Israel shall dwell safety ; and this is the 
name whereby he shall be called, the Lord our 
Righteousness."'" Jeremiah xxiii. 5, 6 ; Zech. iii. 8, 
vi. 12. He is undoubtedly, therefore, the Messiah, 
and the earth is to be the scene of his reign. Some 
have, indeed, referred the prediction to Hezekiah ; 
but that prince presents no resemblance to this 
monarch in wisdom and righteousness ; nor did the 
conditions of the Israelites, the Gentile nations, or 
the animal tribes, during his sway, exhibit any cor- 
respondence to those that are here foretold. ~No 
restoration of the Israelites from captivity then took 
place, no reconciliation of Judah and Ephraim, no 
change of the ferocious animals to harmlessness, and 
no spread of the knowledge of God throughout the 
earth, and conversion of the Gentiles. 

5. Metaphor, in the use of rest upon, to denote 
the perpetual presence of the Spirit, — " And the 
Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him ; the Spirit of 
wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and 
might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 239 

Jehovah," v. 2. The Spirit of seven characteris- 
tics, comprising all the great attributes which he 
exerts and displays in his influences on men, and 
symbolized in the Apocalypse by the seven lamps 
and seven eyes, is to abide and co-operate with him 
perpetually; not occasionally only, as with other 
princes of the house of David, and with the pro- 
phets. 

6. Hypocatastasis. " And he shall smell — inhale 
or detect the odor of things — in the fear of Jehovah," 
v. 3. This unusual expression has received a 
variety of interpretations, and is in a degree obscure. 
The act of smelling is used, however, it is probable, 
by substitution for the act of determining by a 
piercing glance, or searching scrutiny, the moral 
qualities of men and their actions. The nature of 
many material things as agreeable or offensive, 
healthful or hurtful, is ascertained by their scent. 
The exercise of that sharp and powerful sense by 
which the qualities of the minutest emanations from 
bodies are detected, is put for a corresponding 
exercise of a keen and delicate sensibility to moral 
qualities in discerning the characters of men. That 
this faculty of instantly and infallibly detecting their 
moral nature is to be exercised by him in the fear 
of Jehovah, is a beautiful trait. Unlike other 
monarchs, who are often betrayed into rashness and 



240 RESULTS OF THE 

injustice by their great talents, lie is to be as abso- 
lute in his benignity and rectitude as in his intelli- 
gence. This is indicated also by the description 
that follows — " And he shall not judge according to 
the sight of his eyes, nor reprove according to the 
hearing of his ears. And he shall judge in right- 
eousness the poor; and give judgment in equity to 
the meek of the earth," v. 3, 4. He is not to found 
his decisions on external appearances, nor be misled 
by the professions of men, but will perfectly com- 
prehend them and judge them according to their 
nature. 

7, 8, 9. Metaphors. " And shall smite the earth 
with the rod of his mouth, and shall slay the 
wicked with the breath of his lips," v. 4. To smite 
with the tongue is to denounce or condemn, Jere- 
miah xviii. 18. To slay with the breath of the lips 
is to pronounce a sentence of death, or consign to 
slaughter. His tongue is elliptically called the rod 
of his mouth. The sense is the same as though the 
expression had been, He shall smite the earth with 
his tongue, which is the rod of his mouth. In 
accordance w T ith this Christ is exhibited in the Apo- 
calypse, xix. 15, 21, as slaying the armies of the 
wild beast with a sword proceeding from his mouth ; 
and, 2 Thess. ii. 8, as consuming the Man of Sin 
with the breath of his mouth. It is to be at that 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 241 

crisis, doubtless, that he is to exert the acts here 
ascribed to him. 

10, 11. Metaphors, in denominating righteousness 
and faithfulness a girdle. " And righteousness shall 
be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle 
of his reins," v. 5. The office of the girdle of an 
eastern monarch was to bind his robe to his body so 
as to give symmetry to his form, and render his 
dress compatible with freedom and dignity of 
motion. A loose robe would both be ungraceful 
and an obstacle to ease of action. Righteousness 
and faithfulness are to fill an analogous office among 
Christ's regal attributes, uniting them all in perfect 
harmony and grace, and. giving freedom and majesty 
to his acts. What a beautiful delineation of his 
character ! He is to form his estimate of men, not 
from appearances and professions, but from a perfect 
comprehension of their nature ; he shall judge and 
vindicate the poor and meek in uprightness, but 
convict and condemn the wicked ; and truth and 
righteousness shall be as conspicuous elements of 
all his official actions, as the girdle is in the official 
dress of a magnificent monarch. These traits of his 
reign indicate that the period to which that part of 
the prophecy refers is still future. There has, been 
no such discrimination in his providence hitherto, 
between the righteous and the wicked ; and that it 

11 



242 RESULTS OF THE 

is to be in a time that is yet to come, is made certain 
by the prediction that next follows, of the change at 
that period of the ferocious and poisonous animals to 
mildness and harmlessness. 

12. Comparison of the lion in eating straw, with 
the ox. " And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, 
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the 
calf and the young lion and the falling together, and 
a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the 
bear shall feed ; their young shall lie down together ; 
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the 
sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and 
the weaned child shall put his hand on the cocka- 
trice's den," v. 6-8. Many distinguished commen- 
tators have regarded this passage as tropical, and 
held that the ferocious and poisonous animals are 
used by a metaphor to denote men of similar 
natures, and that the prediction is that they shall 
suppress their evil passions, and live in peace and 
concord with the righteous, whom they suppose the 
domestic and tame animals represent. Thus, Theo- 
doret says : " By gentle and ferocious creatures he 
expresses the different manners of men ; likening 
a rapacious disposition to the wolf, but the mild to 
a lamb ; and again the mixed or varying to the 
leopard, which is a spotted animal ; but the simple 
and humble to the kid. So he compares to the lion 



LAWS OF FIGURES, 243 

the proud and imperious ; the bold to the ox ; and 
another differing from those to the calf;" and he 
held that the prediction had its fulfilment in the 
church of the fourth century in the union of empe- 
rors, prefects, and other officers of the imperial 
government, with the unofficial and poor in the 
rites and worship of the church. Jerome also spiri- 
tualizes it in the same manner. " Interpreted by 
the life-giving Spirit, the meaning is obvious. The 
wolf Paul, who had before persecuted and wounded 
the church, of whom it was said, Benjamin, a rapa- 
cious wolf, dwells with the lamb — either with 
Ananias, by whom he was baptised, or the apostle 
Peter to whom it was said, feed my lambs. And 
the leopard which ne\ er before changed its spots, 
washed in the fountain of the Lord, lies down with 
the kid — not the scapegoat, but that which was slain 
for the passover / It should be noticed that it is 
not the lamb and kid that change their habits, but 
the wolf and leopard imitate their harmlessness. 
Also the lion, before the most ferocious animal, and 
the sheep and calf dwell together, as we daily see in 
the church : — the rich and the poor, the powerful 
and the weak, monarchs and subjects dwell together 
and are governed by little children, by whom we 
understand the apostles and apostolic men, unskilled 
in speech but not in knowledge." It is interpreted 



244 RESULTS OF THE 

on the same theory by Cocceius, also, Yitringa, and 
commentators generally. They are nn question ably, 
however, mistaken. If the passage has in fact the 
meaning which they ascribe to it, it is not, as they 
assume, by a metaphor that it acquires it. The 
wolf, leopard, lion, and bear, are not used by that 
figure, inasmuch as they are themselves the subjects 
of the affirmation, not the predicates, as they would 
be were they used metaphorically. In metaphorical 
expressions universally the figure lies altogether in 
the predicate, not in the agent or object to which it 
is applied : as the tempest howls, the wind sighs, the 
fields smile. In these metaphors it is the verb that 
is transferred from its natural use and employed in 
ascribing an act to the tempest, wind, and fields, 
which they do not literally exert, but that only 
resembles the effect they produce. If ferocious and 
meek men had been metaphorized as these writers 
assume, there would have been a direct affirmation 
that the one class are the wolf, leopard, lion, and 
bear, and the other the lamb, kid, ox, and cow. 
They treat it precisely as though the expression 
were, Cruel and bloody men are wolves, leopards, 
lions, and bears; the poor and meek are lambs, 
kids, oxen, and cows ; but the wolf shall dwell with 
the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the 
kid, and the cow and the bear shall feed, and the 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 245 

lion shall eat straw like the ox. Their construction 
accordingly involves in fact the interpolation of a 
passage before that of the prophet, declaring men 
of the two classes to be the animals of the corre- 
sponding natures ; by which men are made the 
theme of the several propositions, instead of those 
brutes ; and the subjects of the prediction thereby 
entirely changed. It is a monstrous violation, 
therefore, instead of a legitimate interpretation of 
the passage. Whatever its meaning is, the animals 
mentioned in it are the subjects of the prediction, 
not men. If any of the language were used by a 
metaphor, it would be the verbs, not the nouns that 
are their nominatives. But the verbs plainly are 
not employed by a metaphor, as the wolf, leopard, 
and lion, are undoubtedly capable of the acts 
ascribed to them. And, moreover, nothing would 
be gained by supposing them to be used by that 
figure ; as there are no analogous acts which they 
can be presumed to indicate that would not involve 
as great a deviation from their present habits as 
those whi ;h these verbs literally express. 

Nor is there any other figure in the passage by 
which men are made the subjects of the prediction. 
The animals are not used by an allegory as repre- 
sentatives of men of resembling dispositions. None 
of the numerous writers, who in fact treat them as 



24:6 RESULTS OF THE 

though they were employed in that relation, regard 
the passage as allegorical ; and it is certain that it is 
not from the consideration that there is no express 
declaration that the wolf, leopard, lion, and other 
animals, are used as the representatives of men. 
The allegory always openly announces who it is 
that the agents or objects which it employs denotes, 
and what their actions are, also, which it exem- 
plifies. Nor are they used by the hypocatastasis ; as 
in that figure, as well as the metaphor, the trope 
lies wholly in the predicate, not in the subject to 
which it is applied ; and its chief difference from the 
metaphor is, that the acts, events, or conditions of 
one class which it ascribes to its subject in place of 
another, are. compatible with that subject's nature, 
as well as those which the substituted acts, effects, 
or conditions are employed to illustrate. Thus, in 
the command, " If thine eye offend thee, pluck it 
out : it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom 
of God with one eye, than having two eyes, to be 
cast into hell-fire, where their worm dieth not, and 
the fire is not quenched; for every one shall be 
salted with fire," — the eye, an organ of the body, is 
substituted for an affection of the mind, and pluck- 
ing out the eye, put for suppressing or eradicating 
that affection ; but the substituted act is as physi- 
cally possible to the agent, as the act of restraining 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 247 

or suppressing the affection which it is employed to 
represent ; and the agent and subject of the substi- 
tuted act, are the agent and subject also of that for 
which it is substituted. If the passage in question, 
then, were supposed to be used by that figure, the 
animals would still be the subjects of the acts 
denoted by those that are ascribed to them, as abso- 
lutely as they would had the verbs been used by a 
metaphor. There is no ground, however, for the 
supposition that they are employed by the hypoca- 
tastasis. There are no analogous acts which those 
literally expressed by the verbs can be presumed to 
represent. There are none of a resembling kind 
that are any more appropriate than those to their 
nature. But there is no other figure bv which the 
language could possibly be made to denote men and 
their actions. There is, in fact, no figure whatever 
in it, except the comparison of the lion with the ox 
in eating straw. The animals must, therefore, by 
the laws of language, be the sole subjects of the 
prediction; and the acts foretold of them, those 
which they are in fact to exert. 

13. Comparison of the prevalence and abundance 
of the knowledge of Jehovah throughout the habi- 
table earth, to the prevalence and abundance of the 
water where the earth is covered by the sea. " They 
shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, 



248 RESULTS OF THE 

because the earth is full of the knowledge of the 
Lord, as the waters cover the sea," — v. 9. What a 
forceful and impressive similitude ! As the waters 
cover that part of the globe which is occupied by 
the sea, and are present at every point of it : so the 
knowledge of the Lord is to spread over all that part 
of the earth that rises above the ocean, and is inha- 
bited by men. The holy mountain is Mount Zion. 
They who are not to hurt nor destroy in all the holy 
mountain, are supposed by Calvin, Hengstenberg, 
Maurer, Alexander, and others, to be men. Jerome, 
Cocceius, Yitringa, and many others, suppose them 
to be the asp, basilisk, and ferocious animals of the 
preceding verses ; and that is undoubtedly the true 
meaning, as they are the antecedent of the verbs. 
The reason that the universal knowledge of the 
Lord is alleged as a proof that they are then to be 
harmless is, that at the period when that knowledge 
is to become universal, the curse brought on man, 
the animal world, and the earth, is to be repealed. — 
Chap. lxv. 17-25. 

The prophet next predicts the conversion of the 
Gentiles, and the restoration of the Israelites at that 
epoch. 

14. Elliptical metaphor, in denominating the 
Messiah the Boot of Jesse; whom he had before 
called a branch from his roots, and a sprout from 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 249 

his stock. " And it shall be in that day, that the 
Root of Jesse, which stands as a signal to the 
nations, unto him shall the Gentiles seek, and his 
rest shall be glorious," — v. 10. Or more simply, 
" And it shall be in that day, that the Gentiles shall 
seek unto the Root-sprout of Jesse, which stands as 
a signal to the nations, and his rest — that is, his 
place or station — shall be glorious." That he is to 
stand and be as a signal to the nations, that is per- 
ceptible at a distance, and that the place of his rest 
shall be glorious, indicate that he is to be visible. 
In the corresponding prediction, chap. iv. 5, it is 
foretold that Jehovah shall then create on every 
dwelling-place on Mount Zion, and on her assem- 
blies, a cloud and a smoke by day, and the shining 
of a flaming iire by night ; which is to be an ele- 
ment, doubtless, of its glory. The verb translated 
seek unto, signifies to inquire of, or consult for 
instruction in respect to his will and their duty, and 
shows that he is directly to communicate with them 
and make to them new revelations. There is a 
similar prediction, chap. ii. 3 : " And many nations 
shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the 
mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of 
Jacob, and he will teach us of his w^ays, and we 
will walk in his paths ; for out of Zion shall go forth 
the law and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem." 

11* 



250 RESULTS OF THE 

"We are thus shown that the glorious place of his 
rest is to be Mount Zion ; and that the nations are to 
go thither for the purpose of being taught what he 
requires of them ; and that he is to speak or com- 
municate to them his word, as he did to his ancient 
people and the prophets, and impose on them his 
law. The period when this is to take place is in the 
last days, and manifestly from his visible presence 
and communication directly with men, after his 
advent. 

15. Comparison of the Root of Jesse to a signal 
to the nations. As conspicuity is doubtless the 
relation in which he will be to them as a signal, it 
indicates that he is to be visible, and in a mode that 
will bespeak his deity. The passage is thus a clear 
revelation that he is then to appear in person, and 
that the Gentile nations are to recognise him as the 
Messiah, and submit to his sceptre. There is no law 
of language by which it can bear any other mean- 
ing. It is not metaphorical, except in the denomi- 
nation of the Messiah as a Root-sprout of Jesse 
which stands. The acts affirmed of the Messiah and 
the Gentiles, and the characteristic of the place of 
his rest, are not employed by hypocatastasis for 
others of an analogous nature. If they were sup- 
posed to be used by that figure, the persons and 
place of which they are affirmed would still be 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 251 

the subjects of those which they are employed to 
denote. But they are not substituted for others of a 
different kind. In the first, " unto the Root-sprout 
of Jesse which stands as a signal," the attitude 
ascribed to the Root-sprout is appropriate to him 
considered as a signal. It was for that reason, 
doubtless, that he was denominated a Root-sprout, 
instead of a Branch of Jesse; that he might be 
exhibited in an attitude of loftiness and conspicuity 
suited to the office of a signal or standard to the 
nations. No other attitude would accord with that 
relation. A mere branch extending horizontally 
from the stock, and near the ground, would be 
unsuitable to it, The attitude ascribed to the Root- 
sprout must therefore be taken as denoting precisely 
what it directly expresses, not as put for a position 
of a different kind. This is made indisputable, 
moreover, by the law of the metaphor, which, when 
an agent or object has been made the subject of that 
figure, requires that the acts, conditions, or qualities 
that are then affirmed of it shall be appropriate to 
the nature that has been metaphorically ascribed to 
it. Thus Judah, being declared to be "a lion's 
whelp," is then treated in the other affirmations that 
are made of him as like that animal. " From the 
prey, my son, thou art gone up ; he stooped down, 
he couched as a lion, and as an old lion : who shall 



252 RESULTS OF THE 

rouse him up ?" In like manner, the Messiah being 
exhibited as a Root-sprout, the act or attitude that 
is ascribed to him is conformable to that nature, and 
must be taken, therefore, as denoting that which it 
directly expresses, not as a substitute for another of 
a different kind. "We have thus the most absolute 
certainty from the laws of language, that there is no 
other figure in that part of the passage than the 
metaphor ; and that that which it ascribes to him 
is nothing else than a visibility and conspicuousness 
to the nations, by which he shall be to them like a 
signal that may be seen at a distance. 

In the second affirmation, "and unto him shall 
the Gentiles seek," or repair, as to an oracle for 
knowledge in respect to the future ; or of him shall 
they ask counsel — the act ascribed to the Gentiles 
cannot be supposed to be used as a substitute for 
another of a different kind. There is nothing in the 
ascription that requires or suggests such a suppo- 
sition. In Christ-s command to pluck out the eye, 
and cut off the hand and foot, if they offend^ the 
exhibition of those organs as offending is suppositi- 
tious, and the direction to eradicate and exscind 
them founded on that supposition, and requires to 
be construed accordingly. No one infers from it 
that the foot or hand is in fact to be cut off, or the 
eye plucked out, in order to one's preventing him- 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 253 

self from sinning. Instead, it is seen that they are 
used simply to show that the affections and passions, 
which are the real occasions of sin, are to be sup- 
pressed and eradicated in a manner as stern, self- 
denying, and effective for them, as the excision or 
eradication of an important bodily organ would be, 
were that the necessary means of avoiding trans- 
gression. But in the prediction in question, " unto 
him shall the Gentiles seek for knowledge," or, 
" unto him shall they apply for counsel," there is no 
such substitution of one act for another. That is 
itself a natural and appropriate act : it is suitable to 
the visibleness and conspicuity in which it is shown 
in the preceding clause he is then to appear to 
them ; and there is no other act more natural and 
appropriate either to them or him of which it can be 
used as** a substitute. To treat it, therefore, as 
employed by a hypocatastasis to denote a different 
act, were not only groundless, but in violation of the 
law of that figure. We have thus the utmost cer- 
tainty that it is used in its literal and not in a figu- 
rative sense. 

Such is the fact, also, with the last affirmation, 
" and his rest — or the place of his manifestation — 
shall be glorious." There is no room for the suppo- 
sition that glorious is used as a substitute for another 
quality. It cannot denote an invisible and spiritual 



254: RESULTS OF THE 

property or characteristic, for it is attributed to a 
place or natural locality, and must signify, therefore, 
a property or characteristic of a locality, and that 
is perceptible to the senses. We have thus not 
merely a probability, but the most absolute demon- 
stration from the nature of the hypocatastasis, that 
none of the affirmations of the passage are used by 
that figure. 

Nor is it symbolical. The .Root of Jesse and the 
nations are not symbols seen by the prophet in vision. 
They were not beheld by him in the condition and 
exerting the acts ascribed to them. The events pre- 
dicted are predicted as future, not represented as wit- 
nessed by him. There, moreover, is no other being 
of whom the Messiah could be a symbol. No other 
is ever to fill such an office towards men. Nor is 
there any other body of men than the Gentiles, 
whom the Gentiles could symbolize. They would 
of necessity denote themselves, if used as symbols, 
as there is no other class whom they can be sup- 
posed to signify. They have no adaptation to repre- 
sent Israelites ; and they are, moreover, expressly 
discriminated from them in the prediction that 
immediately follows. That the Root of Jesse and 
the Gentiles are used to denote not any other 
agents is certain also, from the comparison of the 
office the Messiah is to fill towards them, to that of 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 255 

a standard or signal ; as in that figure the agents or 
objects it is employed to illustrate, are always those 
that are expressly named. 

16. Hypocatastasis. "And it shall be in that 
day, that Jehovah shall stretch out his hand the 
second time to recover the remnant of his people 
that shall be left from Assyria, and from Egypt, and 
from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and 
from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the 
islands of the sea," v. 11. Extending his hand is 
put for analogous acts of his providence, to deliver 
or repossess himself of his people. Pathros is the 
Thebais, or upper Egypt. Cush is Ethiopia and a 
part of southern Arabia, inhabited by the same 
race. Elam is a part of Media, Shinar Mesopotamia, 
and Hamath a city of Syria, on the Orontes. The 
period of this interposition for the restoration of his 
people is defined as that in which the Poot of Jesse 
shall visibly manifest himself in glory at Jerusalem, 
and the Gentiles shall go there to learn his will. It 
is to be after his advent therefore. The dispersion 
of the Israelites at the present time, is obviously 
such as is contemplated by the prophecy. They are 
scattered not only throughout Egypt, Ethiopia, 
Mesopotamia, and Persia, but throughout the islands 
and coasts of the Mediterranean and western seas. 

17. Hypocatastasis. " And he shall set up a 



25G KESULTS OF THE 

signal to the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts 
of Israel, and bring together the dispersed of Judah 
from the four wings of the earth," v. 12. Setting 
up a signal, like the standard of an army, is put for 
some analogous act or sign which will show to the 
Israelites that it is his will that they should return 
to their ancient land ; and like the pillar of cloud 
and fire in their journey from Egypt, indicate the 
points at which they are to assemble, and the route 
by which they are to proceed. 

18. Metaphor in the use of wings to denote the 
distant regions of the earth, east and west, north and 
south. 

19, 20. Metaphors in the use of depart and cut 
off. " And the envy of Ephraim .shall depart, and 
the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim 
shall not envy Judah ; and Judah shall not vex 
Ephraim," v. 13. To depart, which is to move from 
one place to another, is not literally predicable of 
envy, which, instead of a real subsistence, is but an 
act. It is used by a metaphor to denote that the 
envy of Ephraim shall cease. Those two branches 
of Israel are no more to be rivals, but to be united 
under one government. To cut off, is literally to 
exscind, or separate by cutting, as a bough from a 
tree, or a limb from the body. It is applied to the 
adversaries of Judah, to denote that they are to be 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 257 

put to death. That Ephraim is no more to envy 
Judah, nor Judah to vex Ephraim, is because they 
are to be gathered together as one nation under the 
Messiah, and implies therefore that their restoration 
is to be real, not figurative. It was as rival and 
hostile powers that they envied and harassed one 
another. It is in their national capacity, or re-union 
as tribes, that they are to abstain from rivalry. 
Otherwise the prediction would be incongruous. 
How will it be a peculiarity of that period, any 
more than of the present age, and others that have 
passed since their dispersion, that they do not envy 
and vex each other, if they do not exist in such a 
relation as to render it possible ? 

21. Metaphor. "And they shall fly upon the 
shoulders of the Philistines, towards the sea," v. 14. 
The act ascribed to them is that of a bird pouncing 
on its prey ; and denotes a violent assault, and con- 
quest of them. Some suppose, from the fact that 
there is no longer a people there who are known as 
Philistines, that the term must be used by a figure to 
denote persons sustaining an analogous relation to 
the church. But denominatives formed from the 
names of countries, are applied to the inhabitants 
of those countries without any consideration of their 
national descent; as European, Asiatic, African, 
Syrian. In like manner Philistines may be used 



258 RESULTS OF THE 

for the inhabitants of Philistia, although they may 
not be descendants of the ancient race of that 
country. 

22. Elliptical metaphors in denominating the 
native inhabitants the sons of the east. " Together 
they shall spoil the sons of the east," v. 14. That 
is, those who not only possess the region, called the 
east, but had their birth and nurture there. 

23. Hypocatastasis. "And they shall lay their 
hand upon Edom and Moab, and the children of 
Amnion shall obey them," v. 14. The act of laying 
their hand upon Edom and Moab, is substituted for 
seizing them by conquest, or taking possession of 
them. 

24. Elliptical metaphor in the use of tongue, to 
denote a narrow branch of the sea terminating in a 
point. " And Jehovah will destroy the tongue of 
the Egyptian sea." The sea, the extremity of which 
is to be destroyed, is the Arabian gulf. The verb, 
in the original, signifies to devote to destruction. 

25. Hypocatastasis. " And he will shake his 
hand over the river with his vehement wind, and 
strike it into seven streams, and make them tread it 
in shoes," v. 15. Shaking his hand is substituted 
for an act of will or providence. The figure bespeaks 
in a sublime manner his infinite power. He has 
but to beckon, and a resistless wind strikes the 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 259 

stream, and driving it into seven separate channels, 
leaves the original bed dry. The river is the 
Euphrates. 

26. Hypocatastasis, in the use of highway to 
denote a way that is freed from obstructions and 
made easy of passage. " And there shall be a high- 
way for the remnant of my people that shall be left 
from Assyria, as there was for Israel in the day of 
his coming up from the land of Egypt," v. 16. That 
a literal highway, or artificial road, is not meant, is 
seen from its resemblance to that of the Israelites in 
their march from Egypt to Canaan. They had 
merely a way freed from its natural obstructions, 
not a road made by art. It is used to show that a 
way will be opened to them by the removal of all 
great obstructions, like the Red Sea and the Euphra- 
tes, and the provision perhaps in the desert between 
Assyria and Palestine, of water and food, as they 
were provided for the Israelites in their journey- 
ing through the wilderness. 

27. Comparison of the highway from Assyria 
with the way of the Israelites from Egypt. 

This prediction of the restoration of the Israelites 
to their ancient land is regarded by many commen- 
tators as a prediction of their conversion to Chris- 
tianity and admission to the church. Some suppose 
that their return to Palestine from the places of 



260 RESULTS OF THE 

their dispersion is used by a metaphor to denote 
their accession to the church. It is, however, 
wholly mistaken ; as the act ascribed to the Israel- 
ites is compatible with their nature and condition, 
not an act that is only practicable to some other 
class of agents, as it should be, in order to be 
ascribed to them by a metaphor. They are actually 
dispersed through all the countries mentioned by 
the prophet, and their return is no more an 
impossible or unnatural act, than their migration 
there, or movement in any other direction. It is 
certain, therefore, from the principle of the meta- 
phor, — which is the ascription of a nature, act, or 
condition, to an agent or object that does not belong 
to it, — that the act here affirmed of them is not 
employed by that figure. 

Those writers, however, in fact, though unaware 
of it, proceed on the assumption that this prophecy 
is symbolical instead of figurative; for they treat 
the act of returning to Palestine as representative 
of a conversion to Christ, Edom and Moab as sym- 
bols of anti-christian or unchristianized countries or 
powers, and the conquest of those countries as the 
conquest of the enemies of the church, or the 
heathen. But this is as erroneous as the other. The 
prediction is not symbolic. The Eoot of Jesse, the 
Gentiles, the Israelites, the countries from which 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 261 

they are to return, the act itself of their return, 
Edom, Moab, and the children of Amnion, and 
their conquest of those countries and that people, 
were not exhibited to the prophet in vision, and the 
acts and events beheld by him which are foretold 
of them. They are predicted as to take place at a 
future day, not represented as witnessed by him, as 
a visionary spectacle, as they would have been had 
they been symbols. Moreover, the act of returning 
to Palestine is not a proper symbol of a conversion 
to God. A return to Palestine does not necessarily 
involve or imply even a nominal conversion to 
Christianity. Thousands of Israelites migrate thither 
now, without any relinquishment of their disbelief 
that Christ is the Messiah. Besides, as the Christian 
church is, at the period when the prophecy is to be 
fulfilled, to be established in all the lands from 
which the Israelites are to return, as is shown by 
the prediction that the Gentiles are then to seek to 
Christ ; a return from those lands where the Chris- 
tian faith is universally to be held, is not a proper 
symbol of a conversion to Christ. It would be 
merely to move from one christianized region to 
another, which presents no resemblance to a change 
from unbelief to faith, and from enmity to love. 
And finally, if the countries in which they are dis- 
persed, the land they are to possess, and the act of 



262 RESULTS OF THE 

returning, are symbols of things of a different 
nature, then must the Israelites themselves and the 
Gentiles be taken as symbols of men of different 
classes ; which is impossible, as there are no others 
among the inhabitants of the earth. The assumption 
that the prophecy is symbolic is thus altogether 
untenable. We have, therefore, all the demonstra- 
tion that the laws of language and symbols can 
furnish, that the event it foreshows is such a resto- 
ration of the Israelites to their ancient country as it 
literally describes. 



CHAPTER XH. 

This is confirmed by the acknowledgments and 
celebrations which the prophet next shows they are 
to utter on that occasion, which imply that their 
condition as a people is altogether changed ; and by 
extraordinary interpositions and displays of power, 
such as would be involved in a miraculous restora- 
tion to their national country, like that which is 
described in the preceding prediction. 

1. Apostrophe to the Israelites, though not ex- 
pressly named, — as now no longer two nations, but 
a single people, and implying, therefore, their literal 
restoration and re-union. " And in that day thou 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 263 

— Israel — shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee," 
v. 1. 

2. Metaphor, in the exhibition of anger as turned 
away ; — which signifies a motion in space, to denote 
that it is no longer exercised towards them. " Though 
thou wast angry with me, thine auger is turned 
away, and thou comfortest me," v. 1. 

3, 4, 5, 6. Metonymies of the effect for its cause 
or source, and of a work for its subject. " Behold 
God is my salvation ; I will trust and not be afraid ; 
for Jah Jehovah is my strength and song.; and he 
is become my salvation," v. 2. Salvation is put for 
Saviour, or the author of salvation ; strength for the 
author or source of strength, or him who exerts the 
strength that gives deliverance and safety ; and song 
for the subject of the song, or him who is cele- 
brated in it, and occasions the joy which it ex- 
presses. 

7. Hypocatastasis. "And ye shall draw water 
with joy from the springs of salvation," v. 3. Springs 
of salvation are salutary springs, or springs that 
refresh, invigorate, and give health. To draw water 
with alacrity and gladness from such springs, is put 
for embracing with promptness and exhilaration the 
blessings generally provided for them by God, who 
is the source of their salvation. 

8. Apostrophe. " And in that day shall ye say, 



264 RESULTS OF THE 

Praise ye Jehovah ; call upon his • name, make 
known among the nations his exploits, remind that 
his name is exalted. Praise Jehovah, because he 
has done excellent things ; known is this in all the 
earth," v. 4, 5. They are here exhibited as address- 
ing one another, and exhorting to this commemora- 
tion of Jehovah's wonderful works towards them. 

9. Metaphor in the use of exalted, which denotes 
elevation in space, to signify that his name is mani- 
fested in such a manner as to attract in a higher 
measure .the adoration and love of his people. 

10. Apostrophe. " Cry out and shout, O inha- 
bitant of Zion, for great in the midst of thee is the 
Holy One of Israel," v. 6. This is addressed to the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem in distinction from the 
Israelites generally ; and indicates, like the predic- 
tion that his rest shall be glorious, that Zion is then 
to be the scene of great and majestic displays of his 
presence. 

1. The contrast which Christ's reign is to present 
to theirs who have hitherto swayed the earth, is 
worthy of his perfections, and shows that his pre- 
sence and rule is to be an infinite blessing to the 
race. The great monarchs of the nations who pre- 
cede him, are like ferocious brutes that naturally 
prey on the harmless and helpless animals. But 
omniscience, omnipotence, infallible wisdom, and 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 265 

Infinite righteousness and benignity, are his attri- 
butes ; and in place of oppressing and destroying, he 
is to protect and vindicate the weak and unoffend- 
ing ; and instead of justifying and prospering, is to 
convict and punish the wicked. 

2. This prophecy plainly shows that Christ is to 
exert the rule here ascribed to him in person and 
visibly to men, that he is then to discriminate per- 
fectly between the good and the evil, that all noxious 
and ferocious creatures are to become harmless, that 
the earth is to be filled with the knowledge of him, 
that the Gentiles are to recognise and acknowledge 
him as the Messiah, and repair to him for instruction 
respecting his will, and that the Israelites are then 
to be restored by extraordinary means to their 
ancient land, and re-united as a nation. As these 
great futurities are thus revealed, and with a clear- 
ness and certainty that cannot be evaded, except by 
a violation of the indisputable and fundamental laws 
of language, they are to be received with as entire 
trust as any of the other events that God has made 
known for our faith. To disbelieve them, is to dis- 
believe him. To attempt to expunge them from the 
prophecy, and introduce others in their stead, is not 
to interpret, but to put aside his word, and substi- 
tute another in its place. To denounce them as 
unworthy of his perfection.', as some unhappily do, 
12 



266 RESULTS OF THE 

is in effect to impeach his wisdom and truth, and 
exhibit his word as unworthy of trust. 

3. Some hesitate to receive this prediction of the 
restoration of the Israelites on the ground that they 
cannot see that it can answer any end that seems to 
present a sufficient reason for so extraordinary a 
measure. The question, however, whether God has 
revealed their return, is not to be determined by the 
estimate those persons may form of its wisdom, but 
by the terms of the prophecy. "Whether the ends it 
is to answer, or the results that are to spring from it 
are seen to be worthy of his perfections or not, his 
wisdom and righteousness furnish an ample cer- 
tainty that they will be suitable to the grandeur of 
his attributes, and the great interests of his kingdom 
which they are to affect; and God, to intercept 
doubt, has revealed in the prophetic song with 
which the prediction is closed, the impressions with 
which it is to be contemplated by those who are to 
be the subjects of it, and shown that instead of 
distrust or indifference, it is to be regarded by them 
with wonder and gratitude, and celebrated with 
praises and thanksgivings throughout the world. 
What a beautiful method of conciliating the faith of 
his people now, and inspiring them with gladness 
and praise in the prospect of the wonderful event. 



LAWS OF FIGURES. 267 

The exposition of these predictions by the laws of 
figures thus shows, with invincible certainty, that 
the restoration of the Israelites of which they treat, 
is to be a literal one, and confutes accordingly the 
attempt of the spiritualists to divest them of that 
meaning, and substitute an arbitrary mystical sense 
in its place. Their error is as gross and unpardon- 
able, as it were to attempt to apply their theory of a 
mystical meaning to the decalogue, the doctrine of 
atonement, justification, pardon, the resurrection, a 
future life, or any other teachings either of God or 
of men. 

What is meant by the spiritualization of the Scriptures by inter- 
preters ? Give an example of it. Is there any express authority 
for this treatment of the sacred word in the Bible itself, or in the 
laws of language ? For what purpose is it used by expositors ? Is 
there any ground for the pretext, that the passages which they 
thus treat have a figure in them that gives them such a represen- 
tative sense? Is the principle on which they construe the pas- 
sages which they spiritualize accordant with the law of the 
allegory 8 What is the first difference between them ? What is the 
second ? What is the first false result to which the application of 
the law of the allegory would lead these writers ? What is the 
second false result to which it would lead them ? What is the 
third erroneous result to which it would conduct them? What is 
the fourth ? What is the fifth ? What is the last absurd result to 
which their method leads them? Would these errors and absur- 
dities be avoided by a strict adherence to the laws of figures ? 

By what figure are shoot, branch, root, and stump used, Is. xi. 



268 RESULTS OF THE LAWS OF FIGURES. 

1 ? "What is the figure, v. 2 ? What is the figure, v. 8 ? In 
what sense is the verb used? What are the figures, v. £? 
What are the figures, v. 5 ; and what is the sense which they 
convey ? What is the figure, v. 6-8 ? How is it proved that there 
is no metaphor in the passage? How that there is no hypoca- 
tastasis in it? Who then are the subjects of the acts foreshown; 
the animals mentioned, or men ? What is the figure, v. 9 ? In 
what respect is the figure beautiful ? What is the first 
figure, v. 10 ; and what is foreshown in the passage ? What is 
the second figure, v. 10; and what does it indicate? How is it 
proved that the event predicted is not metaphorical ? What is the 
true import of the passage then ? What is meant by the second 
affirmation, v. 10 ? What is the import of the third ? How is it 
proved that it is not used by the hypocatastasis ? How that it is 
not symbolical ? What is the figure, v. 11? What is the first 
figure, v. 12? By what figure is wings used ? What are the 
figures, v. 13? What are the first figures, v. 14? What is the 
last? By what figure is tongue used, v. 15? By what figure is 
shake the hand used, v. 15 ? By what figure is highway used, r. 
16? How is it proved that the prediction of the return of the 
Israelites is not a prediction of the conversion of the Gentiles ? On 
what principle do the spiritualizers proceed, in endeavoring to give 
it such a meaning? How does it appear that their assumption is 
mistaken ? 

What is the first figure, chap. xii. 1 ? What is the second ? 
What are the figures, v. 2 ? What, v. 3 ? What is the first figure, 
v. 4, 5 ? What the second ? What is the figure, v. 6 ? What is 
the first truth taught, chap. xii. ? What is the second ? What is 
the peculiar beauty of the method employed in the chapter to 
foreshow the restoration of the Israelites ? 



MUSICAL FEET, AND MODULATION OF VERSE. 269 



CHAPTEE XVH. 

MUSICAL FEET, AND THE MODULATION OF VERSE. 

One of the principal sources of trie pleasure which 
verse yields, especially to the cultivated, is its 
rhythmus, or the music of its measured sound, when 
properly pronounced, resulting from the order in 
which the long and short syllables of which it is 
formed are combined. Besides the beauty of the 
thought, the graces of the expression, and the splendor 
of the scenery, Milton's great poem undoubtedly had 
to his ear the charm also of a musical movement, or 
modulation, that answered to the stately march of 
the verse ; that rose now to passion, and now sub- 
sided to softness ; and, like the successive parts of a 
great musical composition, terminated at the prin- 
cipal pauses, sometimes in a peal or abrupt inter- 
ception, as it were, of a note ere it is finished, and 
sometimes, and more frequently, in a gentle and 
soothing cade, ce, like a distant strain that fades 



270 

away on the ear, or the soft and delicate amen in 
which a rapturous chant sometimes breathes out its 
last accents, and sinks into silence. To discern this 
musical element, and feel its full force, a knowledge 
is necessary of the means by which its fine move- 
ments and subtle charms are produced. 

That which mainly distinguishes verse from prose 
is, that it consists of a regular alternation or succes- 
sion of syllables that differ in length ; the long occu- 
pying in the pronunciation twice the time of the 
short, or receiving an emphasis that gives them to. 
the ear an equivalent distinction. The different 
combinations in which the long and short syllables 
are united are called musical feet. The principal 
are : 

The Pyrrhic, or two short syllables, marked w \ 

The Spondee, or two long syllables, marked ~ ". 

The Iambic, or one short and one long syllable, 
marked " ~. 

The Trochee, or one long and one short syllable, 
marked ~ w . 

The Dactyl, or one long and two short syllables, 
marked \ 

The Anapest, or two short and one long syllable, 
marked ". 

The Amphimacer, or a long, a short, and a long 
syllable, marked " ' w ". 



THE MODULATION OF VERSE. 271 

The Amphibrach, or a short, a long, and a short, 
marked w . 

Other feet, of which there are several of three 
and of four syllables, are seldom used in English 
verse. The differences of the several species of 
verse lie partly in the number, and partly in 
the nature of the feet of which they are formed. 
Each species consists mainly of one particular foot. 
Thus heroic, or blank verse, like Milton's Para- 
dise Lost, has ten syllables to the line, and they 
are generally iambics, or feet consisting of a 
short and a long syllable. A trochee, or a spon- 
dee, is introduced perhaps once in two or three 
lines ; sometimes because the words forming those 
feet are requisite to the most* vivid exhibition of the 
act, feeling, or quality that is described or expressed, 
and more often for the purpose of giving variety and 
sprightliness to the modulation. Thus Milton's first 
line consists of an iambic, a spondee, and three 
iambics ; his second, of five iambics ; his third, of a 
spondee, a trochee, and three iambics ; his fourth 
and fifth, of iambics ; his sixth, of a spondee and 
four iambics ; his seventh and eighth, of iambics ; 
his ninth, of a trochee and four iambics ; and his 
tenth to the pause, of a spondee and one iambic and 
a half: 



272 MUSICAL FEET, AND 

" Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit 
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste 
Brought death into our world, and all our woe, 
"With loss of Eden, till one greater man 
Restore iis, and regain the blissful seat. 
Sing, heavenly muse, that on the secret top 
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire 
That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed, 
In the beginning, how the heavens and earth 
Rose out of chaos." 

Thus of fifty-two feet, all but six are iambics. All 
ten syllable lines, whether blank verse or rhyme, 
are in like manner formed mainly of iambics. So 
also are all octo-syllabic poems, such as Scott's 
Marmion and Byron's Giaour. In sacred verse, the 
eight syllable, or long metre, the eight and six 
syllable, or common and short metre, are formed of 
iambics, with the exception occasionally of a trochee, 
or spondee, as the first foot of a line, in long metre, 
all the lines have four feet ; in common metre, the 
first and third have four, the second and fourth, 
three feet ; in short metre, the first, second, and 
fourth have three feet, the third four. There is 
also an eight syllable verse, formed of an iambic 
and two anapests, as : 

" The moment a sinner believes." 



THE MODULATION OF VEESE. 273 

Lines of eleven syllables consist of but four feet, the 
first being usually an iambic, trochee, or spondee, 
and the others anapests, or dactyls. When the 
dactyl is first, the last foot is a trochee. Thus : 

" I would not hVe alway, I wish not to stay, 
Where storm after storm rises dark o'er the way, 
The few lurid mornings that rise on iis here 
Are enough for our woes, full enough for our cheer." 

In the last hymn quoted in the volume, the first 
and third lines have a dactyl first, and close with a 
trochee; the second and fourth begin with an 
iambic and close with an anapest. Lines of seven 
syllables are formed of three feet, two trochees and 
one amphimacer : 

" What could your Redeemer do 
More than he has done for you ?" 

Seven and eleven syllable lines are usually 
employed only in songs, hymns, or poems of such 
moderate length, that the unvarying recurrence of 
the same movement does not tire. Were iambics, 
however, to be used exclusively in eight and ten 
syllable lines, the modulation would be too mono- 
tonous. To avoid that, trochees especially are used 
at the commencement, and occasionally in other 
12* 



274 

parts of a line ; and. now and then spondees also, 
though less frequently ; and the use of those feet, 
particularly the trochee, is the means of producing 
the most delightful changes in the rhythm, and 
giving sprightliness and elegance to the movement. 
Thus in the passage immediately following that 
quoted from Milton, trochees are used in the third, 
fourth, and fifth lines, that vary the movement, and 
give it a life and rapidity far greater than a mere 
series of iambics would possess. 

" Or if Sion hill 
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed 
Fast by the oracle of God, I thence 
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song, 
That with no middle flight intends to soar 
Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues 
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme." 

Here the prolonged or heavy accent of fast, that, 
and things, at the beginning of the third, fifth, and 
seventh lines, and of while at the commencement of 
the last half of the sixth, by reversing the movement 
the verse would otherwise have, breaks the mono- 
tony, and gives a vivacity and charm to the modula- 
tion like that produced in music by passing from 
a long to a short note, and from a short to a long 



THE MODULATION OF VERSE. 275 

one, or the elevation or descent of the voice from 
one tone to another. 

This effect of the trochee at the commencement 
of a line is exemplified in the following passage : 

" Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate, 
With head uplift above the waves, and eyes 
That sparkling blazed, his other parts beside 
Prone on the flood, extended long and large, 
Lay floating many a rood ; in bulk as huge 
As whom the fables name of monstrous size, 
Titanian or earth born, that warred on Jove, 
Briareos, or TyphOn, whom the den 
By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast 
Leviathan which God of all his works 
Created hugest that swim the ocean stream ; 
Him haply slumbering on the Norway foam, 
The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff, 
Deeming some island, oft as seamen tell, 
With fixed anchor in his scaly rind 
Moors by his side under the lee, while night 
Invests the sea, and wished morn delays ; 
So stretch'd out huge, in length the archfiend lay, 
Chain'd on the burning lake, nor ever thence 
Had risen or heaved his head, but that the will 
And high permission of all- ruling heaven 
Left him at large to his own dark designs, 
That with reiterated crimes he might 



276 

Heap on himself damnation, while he sought 
Evil to others, and enraged might see 
How all his malice served but to "bring forth 
Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy shown 
On man, by him seduced, but on himself 
Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance poured." 

If the trochees with which nine of these lines 
commence were exchanged for iambics, the modula- 
tion from its uniformity would be comparatively 
tame, like a succession of bars in music in a 
monotone. By introducing them with trochees, an 
effect is produced analogous to a change in a 
tune to a quicker movement, or to a variation of 
positions and attitudes in a dance. 

Another important element in the rhythm of 
verse is the caesura or pause, at or near the centre 
of the line, dividing it into two parts, that, though 
not always equal in syllables, are to be pronounced 
as near as may be in equal times. This pause, 
which is followed by another of equal length at the 
end of the line, gives a perpetual swell and subsi- 
dence, as it were, to the pronunciation, like the 
vibrations of a pendulum ; and varied as a portion 
of the lines are by trochees and spondees, invests it, 
to a tuneful ear, with the charm of a delicate 
musical movement. In the pronunciation, the 



THE MODULATION OF VERSE. 277 

principal emphasis is thrown generally on a single 
syllable, sometimes on two in each branch of the 
line ; in the first generally on the second syllable, 
in the second also occasionally on the second, 
usually on the last, and sometimes both on the last 
and next but one to the last. Thus in Milton's 
lines : 

" About them frisking play'ed 
All beasts' of the earth, since wild', and of all chase' 
In wood' or wilderness, forest or den ; 
Sport'ing the lion romp'd', and in his paw' 
Dan 'died the kid ; bears, tigers, ounces, pards', 
Gam'boll'd before them ; the unwieldy el'ephant, 
To make' them mirth, used' all his might, and wreath'd' 
His lithe' proboscis ; close' the serpent, sly', 
Insinuating, wove, with Gor'dian twine, 
His braid'ed train, and of his fa'tal guile 
Gave proof unheeded." 

Paradise Lost, b. iv. 

Though the other long syllables are prolonged or 
accented beyond the short ones, a so much stronger 
emphasis is thrown upon these, that the others are 
made in a measure subordinate to them, and a pul- 
sation given to the movement that answers to the 
regular step in a stately march, or the measured 
breathings in a musical air. 



278 - MUSICAL FEET, AND 

This bold and vigorous rhythm is characteristic 
of Milton's verse, and is one of the elements of the 
peculiar sweetness and majesty that distinguish it 
from others. Nearly all his lines consist of two 
groups of words, expressing different thoughts, or 
treating of different things, that admit naturally of a 
division by a pause. Thus : 

"Meanwhile', in utmost longitude, — where heav'en — 
With earth' and o'cean meets, — the set'ting sun — 
Slow'ly descended, — and with right aspect' — 
Against' the eastern gate — of par'adise — 
Lev'ell'd his evening rays ; — it was a rock' — 
Of al'abaster, — pil'd' up to the clouds', 
Conspic'uous far, — wind'ing with one ascent' — 
Acces'sible from earth; — one en 'trance high, — 
The rest' was craggy cliff — that overhung' — 
Still' as it rose, — impos'sible to climb. — 
Betwixt' these rocky pillars, — Ga'briel sat, — 
Chief of the angelic guard, — await'ing night ; — 
About' him exercised — hero'ic games — 
Th' un 'armed youth' of heaven, — but nigh' at hand — 
Celes'tial armory, — shields, helms, and spears' — 
Hung high', — with di'amond flaming and with gold'. — 
Thith'er came Uriel, — gli'ding through the even' — 
On' a sunbeam, — swift' as a shoo'ting star — 
In au'tumn thwarts the night, — when vapors fir'd' — 
Impress' the air, — and shows the mar'iner — 



THE MODULATION OF VERSE. 279 

From what point' — of his com 'pass to beware' — 
Impet'uous winds." 

Paradise Lost, b. iv. 

A fine rhythm, though inferior to Milton's, marks 
the verse also of Thomson and Cowper. It is less 
perceptible in Young, who was occupied more with 
a pointed and epigrammatic expression than with 
harmony ; and often in Wordsworth, much of whose 
verse is mere prose compressed into lines of ten 
syllables, scarce a trace of it exists. It is eminently 
characteristic of Pope's versification, and constitutes 
one of its most exquisite charms* Thus in his 
Messiah : 

" Ye nymphs' of Solyma, — begin' the song ! — 
To heav'enly themes — subli'mer strains' belong. — 
The mos'sy fountains, — and the sylv'an shades, — 
The dreams' of Pindus, — and th' Aon'ian maids, — 
T)elight' no more. — O thou' my voice' inspire — 
Who touch'd' Isaiah's — hal'lowed lips' with fire ! — 

Rapt' into future times, — the bard' begun : — 
A vir'gin shall conceive, — a vir'gin bear a son — 
From Jes'se's root — behold a branch' arise, — 
Whose sa'cred flower — with fra'grance fills the skies; — 
Th' ethe'rial spirit — o'er its leaves' shall move, — 
And on its top' — descends' the mys'tic Dove. — 
Ye heav'ens from high — the dewy nec'tar pour, — 



280 MUSICAL FEET, AXD 

And in soft si'lence — shed the kind'ly shower ; — 

The sick' and weak — the healing plant' shall aid, — 

From storm' a shelter, — and from heat' a shade : — 

All crimes' shall cease, — and ancient frauds' shall fail ; — 

Returning Jus'tice — lift aloft' her scale ; — 

Peace' o'er the world — her olive wand' extend, — 

And white-robed In'nocence — from heaven' descend." — 

Much of the subtle grace of Bryant's blank verse 
lies in the skill of the rhythm, the frequency of the 
transition from one foot to another, and at such 
points in the line as to produce a marked caesura, 
and give at once great boldness and delicacy to the 
modulation : 

" Yet not to thine eternal rest'ing-place 
Shalt' thou return alone,— nor' couldst thou wish 
Couch' more magnificent. Thou' shalt lie down' 
With pa'triarchs of the in'fant world, — with kings', 
The pow'erful of the earth, — the wise', the good, 
Fair forms', and hoary seers' of ages past, 
All' in one mi'ghty se'pulchre. — The hills', 
Rock'-rihbed' and an'cient as the sun ; — the vales', 
Stretching' in pensive qui'etness between ; 
The ven'erable woods ; — ri'vers that move 
In ma'jesty, and' the complaining brooks' 
That make' the mea'dows green ; — and poured' round' all' 
Old o'cean's gray and me'lancholy waste — 



THE MODULATION OF VERSE. 281 

Are' but the soreinn dec'orations all' 
Of the great tomb' of man." 

Thanatopsis. 

Another means of varying and heightening the 
melody, is the cadence in which the verse is made 
to terminate at a full pause. In blank verse, the 
pause or full stop may take place on the first or any 
of the following syllables of the line. Of these, the 
most pleasing begin with a trochee ; and of those, 
the most graceful terminate on the third, the fifth, 
or the seventh syllable. As Milton's : 

" Sing", heavenly muse, — that on the se'cret top — 
Of O'reb or of Si'nai — didst inspire' — 
That shep'herd who — first taught' the chosen seed — 
In' the begin'ning — how' the heaven and iBarth — 
Eose" out of cha'os." 

There is a similar cadence in the following pas- 



" Whom he drew' — 
God's al'tar to disparage — and displace' — 
For one' of Syrian make, — whereon to burn' — 
His o'dious offerings — and adore the gods' — 
Whom' he had van'quished." 



282 MUSICAL FEET, AND 

" Advise if this be worth' 
Attempting, — or to sit in dark'ness here — 
Hatching vain em'pires." 

Many of Milton's cadences commencing with a 
trochee, and terminating on the fourth syllable, are 
fine: 

" The tow'ers of heaven are filled' — 
With arm'ed watch, — that render all access' — 
Impreg'nable. — Oft' on the bordering deep' — 
Encamp' their legions ; — or, with ob'scure wing, — 
Scout' far and wide — in'to the realm' of night, — 
Scorn'ing surprise." 

" Thrones' and imperial powers, — offspring of heaven, — 

Ethe'rial virtues ; — or those ti'tles now — 

i 
Must' we renounce, — and, chang'ing style, be call'ed — 

Prin'ces of hell." 

Those commencing with a trochee, and termi- 
nating on the sixth syllable, have a similar charm : 

" Intermit' no watch — 
Against' a wakeful foe ; — w T hile' I abroad, 
Through' all the coasts — of dark' destruc'tion seek — 
Deliver 'ance for us all. — This en'terprize — 
None' shall partake with me. 



THE MODULATION OF VEESE. 283 

" As' when heav'en's fire — 
Hath sca'thed the forest oaks — or moun'tain pines — 
With sing'ed top, — their stately growth, though bare', — 
Stands' on the blast'ed heath." 

Those opening with a trochee, and closing on the 
seventh syllable, have still greater beauty : 

" For this infer'nal pit — shall ne'ver hold — 
Celes'tial spir'its in bondage, — nor' the abyss — 
Long' under dark'ness cover." 

"He' above' the rest, — 
In shape' and gesture — proudly em'inent, — 
Stood' like a tower ; — his form' had not yet lost' — 
All' her orig'inal brightness." 

" Mil'lions of spiri'tual creatures — walk' the earth — 
Unseen,' both when we wake' and when we sleep' ; — 
All these' with cease 'less praise — his works' behold — 
Both day' and night. — How often' from the steep' — 
And echo'ing hill — or thick'et have we heard' — 
Celes'tial voices — to the mid'night air,' — 
Sole', or respon'sive, — each' to other's note' — 
Sing'ing their great' Creator !" 

There is a beautiful example of this cadence in 
the passage from Homer : 

" So' was the coun'cil sha'ken." 



284 MUSICAL FEET, AND 

Those beginning with a trochee, and ending with 
the eighth syllable, have almost equal elegance : 

" So bent' he seems — 
On des'perate revenge — that shall redound' — 
Up 'on his own rebellious head." 

" For man' will hearken — to his gloz'ing lies,' — 
And ea'sily transgress — the sole' command, — 
Sole pledge' of his obe'dience. — So' will fall' — 
He' and his faith 'less pro'geny." 

When the cadence falls on the last syllable of the 
line, its beauty is still greatly heightened by its 
commencing with a trochee : 

" He spake'; — and to confirm' his words out flew' — 
Mil'lions of flaming swords, — drawn' from the thighs — 
Of migh'ty cherubim. — The sudden blaze' — 
Far round' illumined hell. — High'ly they raged — 
Against' the Highest, — and fierce' with grasp 'ed arms — 
Clash'ed on their sounding shields ; — the din' of war — 
Hurl'ing defi'ance — toward the vault' of heaven." 

" The fiend' looked up and knew' — 
His mount'ed scale aloft ; — nor more,' but fled' — 
Mur'muring, — and with him fled' the shades' of night." 



THE MODULATION OF YEESE. 285 

" We lose' the prime, — to mark' how spring — 
Our ten'der plants, — how blows' the citron grove,' — 
What drops' the myrrh, — and what' the balmy reed', — 
How na'ture paints her colors, how' the bee' — 
Sits' on the bloom, — extracting liquid sweet." 

Bryant's blank verse abounds with, fine cadences 
of these several classes : 

" These' dim vaults, 
These wind'ing aisles, — of human pomp' or pride 7 
Eeport' not. No' fantas'tic carv'ings show 
The boast' of our vain race, — to change the form' 
Of thy fair works'." 

" Noise 'lessly around 
From perch' to perch — the sol'itary bird 



" Nes'tled at his root' 
Is beau'ty, such as blooms' not in the glare' 
Of the broad sun'." 

" These lofty trees 
Wave' not less proud'ly — that their an'cestors 
Moul'der beneath them." 

" Life mocks' the idle hate' 
Of his arch en'emy Death ; — yea, seats' himself 
Upon the ty'rant's throne, — the se'pulchre, 



286 MUSICAL FEET, AND MODULATION OF VERSE. 

And' of the tri'mnphs of his ghas'tly foe 

Makes' his own nourishment." 

Forest Hymn. 

These cadences have thus far greater spirit and 
beauty than they would had they begun with an 
iambic instead of a trochee. 

What is it that mainly distinguishes verse from prose? What is 
a musical foot? What are the principal musical feet used in 
English verse ? What is the pyrrhic ? What is the spondee ? 
Describe the iambic and trochee. Define the dactyl and the ana- 
pest. What is the amphimacer ? What is the amphibrach? How 
many syllables are there in the line in blank verse ? Of what feet 
does blank verse mainly consist ? What other feet are sometimes 
employed in it ? Of what foot are eight syllable lines chiefly 
formed ? May trochees and spondees be sometimes used in them ? 
Of what foot are long, common, and short metre hymns formed ? 
How many syllables are there in the lines of long metre ? How 
many in those of common, and how many in those of short metre ? 
Of what feet are seven syllable hymns formed ? What feet are 
used in the construction of eleven syllable lines ? What foot is 
used at the beginning of ten syllable lines, to give variety and 
elegance to the modulation ? What is the second element in the 
music of blank and other ten syllable verse ? How is the line 
divided by the caesura ? How are the lines to be read to give 
them the proper rhythm or modulation ? Give an example from 
Milton. Give one from Pope. What other means are there by 
which the melody of blank verse is varied and heightened ? On 
what syllables in a line may a cadence terminate? With what 
foot do the finest cadences begin ? On what syllable do the finest 
close ? 



PRINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 287 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF A KNOWLEDGE OF THE PRINCIPLES 
OF VERSIFICATION. 

The ear is as capable of being raised by cultiva- 
tion to a quicker perception and higher enjoyment 
of the harmony of verse, as it is of music, and as the 
fancy, taste, and other powers and sensibilities are 
of evolution and refinement by culture ; and just in 
proportion as a high beau-ideal is approached, the 
delight which fine verse yields is increased, and the 
possibility of a still higher and more varied pleasure 
is augmented. If the characteristics that have been 
pointed out are not at first distinctly appreciated, 
they will soon be unfolded by careful study, and 
become the vehicle of a delicate and lofty delight, 
with which those who have never particularly con- 
sidered them have no acquaintance. A few of the 
finest passages in which they appear, thoroughly 
analysed and revolved till all their peculiarities are 



2S8 PRINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 

comprehended, and their beauty fully felt, will 
contribute more to unfold the sensibility to what is 
graceful, elegant, and grand, and give truth, eleva- 
tion, and strength to the taste, than months and 
years of casual and unobservant reading ; make the 
understanding and comprehension of other passages 
easy and instantaneous, and raise the perception 
and enjoyment of every charm to a quickness and 
energy of which otherwise we could have no con- 
ception. 

An acquaintance with the principles of versifi- 
cation, and with the structure and laws of figures, is 
essential, in order to the proper reading, under- 
standing, and enjoyment of the psalms and hymns 
that are used in domestic and public worship. A 
knowledge of the office and the proper method of 
pronouncing a trochee at the commencement of a 
line is necessary to the correct reading, and fre- 
quently to the full appreciation of the sentiment of 
a hymn. It is used not merely to vary and heighten 
the melody of the verse, but often because the 
employment of an emphatic word or syllable at the 
beginning of the line is requisite to a vivid exhibi- 
tion of the act which it narrates or describes, or 
expression of the thought which it utters. There is 
an eminent example of this in the following passage 
of Paradise Lost, b. vi. : 



PBEJCEPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 289 

" He' on his im'pious foes — right on'ward drove, — 
Gloom 'y as night, — un'der his burning wheels — 
The steadfast empyrean — shook 7 throughout — 
All' but the throne itself of God'.— Full soon' — 
Among' them he arrived, — in his right hand' — 
Grasp "ing ten thousand thun'ders, — which he sent' — 
Before' him, — such' as in their souls' infixed — 
Plagues". They, aston'ished, all resistance lost, — 
All cou'rage ; — down' thf ir idle weapons dropt. — 
O'er shields/ and helms, — and helmed heads he rode — 
Of thrones', and mighty seraphim prostrate' 
That wish'ed the mountains — now might be again' 
Thrown" on them, — as a shel'ter from his ire. — 
Yet half his strength he put not forth, — but check' ed — 
His thun'der in mid vol'ley ; — for he meant' — 
Not' to destroy, — but root' them out of heaven. — 
The overthrown' he raised, — and as a herd' — 
Of goats', or timorous flock', — together throng'ed, — 
Drove" them before him thun'ders truck, — pursued' — 
With ter'rors and with fu'ries, — to the bounds' — 
And erys'tal wall of heaven, — which, opening wide', — 
Roll"d in'ward, and — a spacious gap' disclosed — 
In"to the wasteful deep. — The monstrous sight' — 
Struck" them with horror backward ; — but, far worse', — 
Urg'd' them behind. — Headlong themselves they threw' — 
Down" from the verge of heaven ; — eternal wrath' — 
Burnt" after them — to the bot'tomless pit." 

This description is far more spirited and energetic 
13 



290 PKLN'CITLES OF VERSIFICATION. 

than it would have been, if, instead of the emphatic 
words with which so many of the lines, and espe- 
cially the last six, begin, iambics had been nsed. 
They not only give rapidity and power to the 
modulation, but the verbs that are used, consisting 
of a single syllable, were requisite to paint the scene 
with a vividness that corresponds to its awful nature. 
Ordinary iambic verbs would have rendered the 
spectacle tame, compared to the terrible energy 
with which it is now drawn. There are several 
exquisite cadences also in the passage. That in the 
eighth line, formed of the first syllable, falls on the 
ear with the abruptness and force of a thunder 
crash. 

The fine effect of a trochee at the commencement 
of a line, in giving force to the expression, and a 
grateful variety to the modulation, is exemplified in 
many of the psalms and hymns; as in the Hun- 
dredth Psalm, in eight syllables. In this, as in 
blank verse, an emphatic accent is usually to 
be thrown on only two or three syllables in a 
line : 

"Before Jeho'vah's aw'ful throne 
Ye na'tions bow with sa'cred joy. 
Know" — that the Lord' is God' alone ; 
He" — can create, and he' destroy. 



PRINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 291 

44 His sov'ereign power, without' our aid, 
Made" us of clay, and form'ed us men 
And when', like wand'ring sheep' we strayed, 
He brought' us to his fold' again. 

" We" are his peo'ple,we' his care', 

Our souls', and all our mor'tal frame; 
What last'ing hon'ors shall we rear, 
Almigh'ty Ma'ker, to thy name ! 

44 We '11 crowd' thy gates' with thank 'ful songs, 
High" — as the heavens' our voic'es raise ; 
And earth', with her ten thou'sand tongues, 
Shall fill' thy courts with sound'ing praise. 

44 Wide" — as the world' is thy command; 
Vast" — as eter'nity thy love ; 
Firm" — as a rock' thy truth' shall stand, 
While roll'ing years shall cease' to move. 1 ' 



The trochees with which so many of the lines 
commence thus present the acts they are employed 
to express in a far bolder and more impressive 
attitude than they could have received had iambics 
been used, and give a vivacity and force to the 
modulation that brings it into harmony with them, 
and makes it as indicative almost of their vehe- 
mence as the emphatic monosyllables are by which 



292 PRINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 

they are so vividly depicted. On the other hand, 
the introduction of the first three lines in the last 
stanza with an emphatic trochee, renders the change 
to an iambic, and the enunciation of the fourth line, 
in the diminishing voice which the cadence requires, 
highly pleasing. 

The same effect of the trochee is seen in the 
following hymn : 

" How sweet' and awful' is the place, 
With Christ' within the doors ; 
While' — everlasting love' displays 
The choic'est of her stores. 

" While all' our hearts', and all' our songs', 
Join' — to admire' the feast, 
Each' of us cry, with thank'ful tongues, 
Lord'', — why was I' a guest ? 

" Why' was I' made to hear thy voice, 
And en'ter while there 's room, 
When thousands make a wretch'ed choice, 
And rather starve' than come ? 

" 'Twas the same love' that spread' the feast 
That sweet'ly forced' us in ; 
Else' we had still refused' to taste, 
And per'ished in our sin. 



PRINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 293 

" Pi'ty the na'tions, our God ; 
Constrain' the earth to come ; 
Send' thy victorious word' abroad, 
And bring' the strangers home. 

u We long' to see thy church'es full ; 
That all' the chosen race 
May with one' voice, and heart', and soul', 
Sing' thy redeeming grace." 



The frequent change throughout the hymn from 
an iambic to a trochee, and from a trochee to an 
iambic, thus adds greatly to the point and grace of 
the expression, and the spirit and beauty of the 
rhythm. 

A spondee is sometimes used in place of a 
trochee, and with much the same effect, as in the 
third line of the following hymn : 

" Mor'tals awake, with an'gels join, 
And chant' the solemn lay ; 
Joy', love', and gra'titude combine 
To hail' the auspi'cious day. 

* In heaven' the rap'turous song began ; 
And sweet' seraph'ic fire 
Through all' the shining le'gions ran, 
And swept' the sounding lyre. 



I 



294 PRINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 

" The theme', the song', the joy' was new 
To each' angel'ic tongue ; 
Swift' — through the realms' of light' it flew, 
And loud' the echo rung. 

** Down' through the por'tals of the sky 
The peal'ing an'them ran ; 
And an'gels flew, with ea'ger joy, 
To bear the news' to man. 

" Hark" — the cherubic ar'mies shout, 
And Glory leads' the song ; 
Peace' and Salva'tion swell' the note, 
Of all the heav'enly throng. 

" With joy' the chor'us we repeat, 
Glory to God on high ; 
Goodwill' and peace' are now complete, 
Jesus" is born' to die." 



The movement of seven syllable lines, formed of 
two trochees and an amphimacer, and with the 
accent usually thrown chiefly on two syllables, is 
very fine : 

" Rock' of Ages cleft' for me, 
Let' me hide' myself in thee ; 
Let the wa'ter and the blood' 



PRINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 295 

From thy wound'ed side' which flowed, 

Be' of sin the dou'ble cure — 

Save 7 from wrath, and make' me pure." 

The modulation of the lines is sometimes rendered 
so expressive and vivacious, by the words of the feet 
of which they are constructed, that it is taken as 
the basis of the air that is composed for them, and 
made the vehicle of a most graphic representation 
of the acts they describe, and impassioned utterance 
of the sentiments they express. That was undoubt- 
edly the origin of the spirited tune to which Moore's 
version of Miriam's song, consisting principally of 
anapests, is set : 

" Sound' the loud tim'brel o'er E'gypt's dark sea', 
JehoVah has tri'umphed, his peo'ple are free'! 
Sing', for the pride' of the ty'rant is bro'ken ! 

His cha'riots, his horse'men, all splen'did and brave, 
How vain' was their boast ! for the Lord' hath but spoken, 

And cha'riots and horse'men are sunk' in the wave ! 
Sound' the loud tim'brel o'er E'gypt's dark sea', 
Jeho'vah has tri'umphed, — his peo'ple are free'! 

If the tones in which the successive syllables of 
these lines are naturally uttered, when pronounced 
with emotion, are written on a musical staff, it will 



296 PRINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 

be found that they present the outline of the beau- 
tiful air in which they are usually sung, and form a 
more graphic delineation of the great acts that are 
described in the words, and expression of the emo- 
tions with which the song should be recited, than 
any others that can be chosen. 

An intimate knowledge of the several figures is 
requisite also to a full appreciation of the images of 
the psalms and hymns, and the grace and force with 
which they invest the sentiments they are employed 
to express and illustrate. Many of them are made 
up almost entirely of figures, and often of the 
greatest delicacy, power, and dignity. The follow- 
ing, by Cowper, is an example : 

" 0, for a closer walk with God, 
A calm and heavenly frame ; 
And light to shine upon the road 
That leads me to the Lamb. 

" Where is the blessedness I knew 
When first I saw the Lord ? 
Where is the soul-refreshing view 
Of Jesus and his word ? 

" What peaceful hours I then enjoyed ! 
How sweet their memory still ! 
But now I find an aching void 
The world can never fill. 



PRINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 297 

" Return, holy Dove, return, 
Sweet messenger of rest ; 
I hate the sins that made thee mourn, 
And drove thee from my breast. 

* The dearest idol I have known, 
Whate'er that idol be, 
Help me to tear it from thy throne, 
And worship only thee. 

" So shall my walk be close with God ; 
Calm and serene my frame ; 
And purer light shall mark the road 
That leads me to the Lamb." 

Many persons, probably, who read this hymn feel 
that it is highly poetic and beautiful, and yet are 
unable to tell distinctly what it is that constitutes its 
peculiar charm ; and would be surprised if informed 
that the principal of the figures with which it 
abounds are of a class (the hypocatastasis) the very 
name of which they had never met in any book 
on rhetoric or poetry, and the principle of which 
they had never heard explained. Yet the figures 
that set forth the poet's thoughts with so much point 
and strength, and like the glow of sunset, shed a 
bright irradiance over the path the Christian is to 
pursue, are all of that class. Thus, in the first 
verse, walking with God, an external act, is put for 

13* 



298 PRINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 

living conformably to his will ; and having a light 
to shine upon a road that leads to Christ, an external 
gift, is put for having a knowledge of the duties 
which he enjoins, or the things that are to be done 
in order to salvation. In the second verse, seeing 
the Lord, and having a view of Jesus, which are 
acts of the eye, are put by substitution for having 
just and refreshing thoughts of him. Feeling a void 
that gives pain, which is a corporeal affection, is 
put, in the third verse, for an analogous mental 
feeling of the loss or the absence of cheering 
thoughts of him. In the fourth verse, returning as 
a dove, an external act, is put for a return of the 
Spirit, by his influences to the mind; and his being 
driven from the breast, is put for his being driven 
from the soul. In the fifth verse, idol, an external 
object, is put by substitution for the object of 
unreasonable love ; and tearing it from the throne, 
for removing it from its place in the affections, or 
causing that it shall no longer be the object of sinful 
attachment. And in the last stanza, walking with 
God, an external act, is again put for living con- 
formably to his will ; and having a light to shine 
upon a road that leads to the Lamb, having a full 
knowledge of what he requires in order to salva- 
tion ; — images of great strength and beauty, and that 
invest the thoughts they are employed to express 



PRINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 299 

with a vividness and grace they could derive from 
no other figure. 

The figure fills the same office in the following 
hymn : 

" God moves in a mysterious way, 
His wonders to perform ; 
He plants his footsteps in the sea, 
And rides upon the storm. 

" Deep in unfathomable mines, 
Of never-failing skill, 
He treasures up his bright designs, 
And works his sovereign will. 

" Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, 
The clouds ye so much dread 
Are big with mercy, and shall break 
With blessings on your head. 

" Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, 
But trust him for his grace ; 
Behind a frowning providence 
He hides a smiling face. 

" His purposes will ripen fast, 
Unfolding every hour ; 
The bud may have a bitter taste, 
But sweet will be the flower. 



300 PRINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 

" Blind unbelief is sure to err, 



And scan his work in vain ; 
God is his own interpreter, 
And he will make it plain." 

In the first verse, moving in a mysterious way, 
planting footsteps in the sea, and riding upon a 
storm, which are corporeal acts, are put by hypo- 
catastasis for analogous acts of God's providence 
that are mysterious, untraceable, and full of terror ; 
and are far more expressive of the greatness, incom- 
prehensibleness, and majesty of his procedure, than 
any untropical or even metaphorical language that 
could have been employed. In the second stanza, 
unfathomable mines are, by an elliptical metaphor, 
ascribed to his skill ; and then, by a hypocatastasis, 
he is represented as treasuring up his designs, and 
working his will there; to signify, that while his 
purposes are shrouded from the gaze of mortals, and 
their execution, which is perpetually going on, is 
veiled from their observance, they yet are marked 
by boundless wisdom, and carried into effect with 
perfect skill. In the third verse, clouds threatening 
a tempest to the material world, but that descend in 
genial showers, are put by the figure for measures 
of providence, or events that seem to portend 
analogous evils to God's people, but that in fact are 



PRINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 301 

to prove the sources of good to them. In the fourth 
verse, God's hiding a smiling face behind a frown- 
ing providence, is one of the most beautiful and 
most majestic figures in the whole compass of human 
language. With what inimitable reality, visibleness, 
and grandeur it invests the thought ! hiding the 
face lighted with a smile, a corporeal act, behind a 
threatening attitude of the instruments which he 
employs to accomplish his will, being used by 
hypocatastasis to signify his veiling his gracious 
dispositions towards them beneath measures of pro- 
vidence that seem to portend to them misfortune 
and destruction ! In the fifth verse, ripen and 
unfolding are used by a metaphor, to indicate the 
analogous evolution and maturing of God's designs ; 
and the bud having a bitter taste, and the flower of 
a sweet smell, are used by hypocatastasis to repre- 
sent the resembling forms which the measures God 
pursues assume as they advance in their accom- 
plishment; though, like a bud, distasteful at first 
and embittering, unfolding at length in the most 
graceful shapes, assuming the most delicate and 
beautiful tints, and giving forth a sweet and exhi- 
larating fragrance. In the last stanza,, the figure is 
used in an equally impressive though less pleasing 
form. Unbelief being pnt by metonymy for unbe- 
liever, the sightless being scanning God's material 



302 PRINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 

work, is then put by hypocatastasis for man 
attempting, in his spiritual blindness, to judge of 
God's moral and providential sway ; a picture as 
dark and sad as the other is bright and cheering. 

LESSONS. 

The following hymn is eminently fine. The greatness and 
splendor of the thoughts, the distinctness with which the objects 
they respect are presented, and the appropriateness and glow of the 
sentiments that are expressed, touch the heart, like a lofty strain 
of music, with an entrancing power, and fill it with a sense of 
divine beauty and bliss : 

" Father ! how wide thy glory shines ! 
How high thy wonders rise ! 
Known through the earth by thousand signs, 
By thousands through the skies. 

"But when we view thy strange design, 
To save rebellious worms ; 
Where vengeance and compassion join 
In their divinest forms ; 

"Here the whole Deity is known; 
Nor dares a creature guess 
Which of the glories brightest shone, 
The justice or the grace. 

"Now the full glories of the Lamb 
Adorn the heavenly plains ; 
Bright seraphs learn Emmanuel's name, 
And try their choicest strains. 



PRINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 303 

' O, may I bear some humble part 

In that immortal song ! , 
"Wonder and joy shall tune my heart, 
And love command my tongue." 

Though so eminently poetic, however, and shedding through the 
mind a sense of beauty and sublimity, its charms are not referable, 
except in a slight degree, to the images which it employs ; as there 
are but seven figures in it, and none of them are of the boldest 
cast. A passage of high poetic excellence, though almost without 
a figure, is quoted in a preceding chapter, and the reason stated 
that such compositions do not need the aid of tropes to invest 
them with their resistless attractions. Does this song owe the 
impression it makes to the same cause ? If so, let the scholar 
state what the secret of its beauty is. Let the figures also be 
pointed out that occur in it. 

The following hymn has a pointed expression, and a sprightly 
movement : 

" Servant of God, well done ! 
Rest from thy lov'd employ ; 
The battle fought, the victory won, 
Enter thy Master's joy. 

u The voice at midnight came, 
He started up to hear ; 
A mortal arrow pierced his frame ; 
He fell — but felt no fear. 

" The pains of death are past ; 
Labor and sorrow cease ; 
And life's long warfare closed at last ; 
His soul is found in peace. 



304: PRINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 

" Soldier of Christ, well done ! 
Praise be thy new employ ; 
And while eternal ages run 
Rest in thy Saviour's joy." 

Where lies the ground of the life and stirring power of this 
spirited hymn? Is it in the thoughts mainly, or largely in its 
images, figures, and modulation? There are three figures in the 
first stanza ; the first is an apostrophe ; what are the two others ? 
In the second there are four figures ; where are they, and of what 
kind ? There is a single figure in the third stanza ; what is it ? 
In the last there are two ; what are they ? Which of the lines 
commence with a trochee ; and what effect has that foot on the 
modulation? 

The following hymn has a quick and stirring movement : 

" Come, let us anew our journey pursue ; 
Roll round with the year, 
And never stand still till the Master appear. 

" His adorable will let us gladly fulfil, 
And our talents improve, 
By the patience of faith, and the labor of love. 

" Our life is a dream ; our time, as a stream, 
Glides swiftly away ; 
And the fugitive moment refuses to stay. 

" The arrow is flown ; the moment is gone ; 
The millennial year 
Rushes on to our view, and eternity 's here. 

" O, that each in the day of his coming may say — 
I have fought my way through ; 
I have finished the work thou didst give me to do. 



PRINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 305 

" that each from his Lord may receive the glad word — 
■ "Well and faithfully done ; 
Enter into my joy, and sit down on my throne.' " 

Each long line consists of two short ones of equal length, and 
forming a rhyme ; and each short or half line contains two metrical 
feet. "What are they ; and in what order do they occur ? In the 
first stanza there are two figures ; where and what are they ? Is 
there any figure in the second stanza ? In the third there are four 
metaphors and one comparison ; point them out. In the fourth 
there are two figures ; designate them. There is one in the fifth ; 
what and in which expression is it? There is one in the last 
stanza ; point it out, and give its name. 

The rhythm of the following eleven syllable hymn, the first and 
third lines of which commence with a dactyl, and close with a 
trochee, the second and fourth begin with an iambic and close 
with an anapest, is very spirited and pleasing : 

" Daughter of Zion, awake from thy sadness ; 

Awake ! for thy foes shall oppress thee no more ; 
Bright o'er thy hills dawns the day-star of gladness ; 
Arise ! for the night of thy sorrow is o'er. 

" Strong were thy foes ; but the arm that subdued them 
And scattered their legions was mightier far ; 
They fled like the chaff from the scourge that pursued them ; 
Yain were their steeds, and their chariots of war. 

" Daughter of Zion, the power that hath saved thee, 
Extolled with the harp and the timbrel should be ; 
Shout ! for the foe is destroyed that enslaved thee ; 
The oppressor is vanquished, and Zion is free !'' 

This, when sung in an appropriate tune, and with suitable 
expression, 6teals over the heart with an entrancing power. Where 



306 PEINCIPLES OF VERSIFICATION. 

lies the secret of its charm ? What tropes are there in it ? "What 
especially is the figure that reigns in it throughout, and, like a 
flash of light from a midnight cloud, shedding illumination over 
hill and vale, and rendering their objects perceptible, kindles the 
fancy with the conception, and touches the heart with the feeling, 
that the redeemed people of Zion are present, listening to the 
chant, and exulting in the triumph which it celebrates ? 



THE EKD. 



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